Fear Is What Drives Us
by Rexcaliburr
Summary: With all of his human emotions, Sniperbot Makina is finding it increasingly hard to cope with everything. When the Administrator offers a one month break for all the mercenaries as respawn goes under maintenance, he takes the opportunity to leave the base and go into town for awhile. Unfortunately, people still don't really like robots at all, and Makina is in for a lot of trouble.
1. Prologue: Letters and Meat

**A/N: Here we go, prologue to the sequel of The Good, The Bad, The Robotic!**

 _"Mission ends in sixty seconds."_

Sixty seconds. They had a whole minute to keep BLU from pushing the bomb cart into the stupidly big hole in the middle of RED's base.

For most people, a minute wasn't a lot of time. You could hardly do anything with a minute only. But for the mercenaries, the last minute of battle was always the longest.

BLU struggled to push the cart, having to fend off oncoming rockets and bullets. RED wasn't having a walk in the park either, what with their increased respawn tine and needing to keep BLU from even getting to the cart. It was so close to the hole already, just another nudge would tip it off the edge.

Pyro stood on the cart itself, aggressively bursting flames at any BLU who dared go near to attempt to make a last second push.

Strategic sticky traps had been placed all around the cart and at entrances to the base so BLU could not so much as to even get anywhere close to the cart.

Spy was mentally counting down the seconds to victory as he snuck behind enemy lines for the last time in the round.

Disguised cleverly as the BLU Sniper, he snuck up behind their Demoman, pretending to take aim at the REDs. When he was close enough, he raised his knife, posed to strike when the timer dinged. As his knife crackled with extra power, the BLU Demoman whipped around in time for Spy to stab him through his only eye.

The rest of the BLUs fled as RED hounded after them like mad dogs, eager for their last kills. Spy didn't follow. There was no reason to. Instead, the prospect of getting first dibs on the cleanest shower stall was a little more tempting.

When he entered the base again, he found Medibot waiting to greet whoever entered first.

 _"Hello Herr Spy,"_ The robot greeted. Medibot had been living with the mercenaries for over six months now. He occasionally switched bases to live at BLU, but always came back to continue research that was left at RED. Spy didn't see him too often; the robot was always in Medic's office working on something.

He nodded to the robot, flipping his hood down and letting it fall onto his shoulders "Medibot."

" _Not going to participate in zhe last humiliation?"_ Medibot asked.

Spy shook his head. "I much rather have a cold shower than run all the way to their base just for an extra kill."

Six months ago his son had died. The BLU Scout - no, the _ex_ BLU Scout - saw death on a daily basis, but that time had been permanent. Spy had learnt to let go of it for the most part, but he found himself plagued with memories every time he stormed BLU's base. He had since stopped going to BLU whenever he could.

Medibot nodded. _"Vell I just cleaned out zhe showers. Not much else better to do. Oh, Miss Pauling visited earlier vhile all of you were out on zhe field. She left a letter for RED."_

"Did you open it?" Spy asked. Already he began to strip himself of his suit jacket, purposely positioning himself right under the blast of the air conditioner. It was an old thing and didn't provide much relief.

 _"No. I don't open any letters zhat aren't meant for me. She just mentioned it vas important and zhat zhe entire team should read it."_

Spy's eyes drifted to the white envelope on the dining table. It stood out white as a star, so pristine and pure in comparison to the rest of the old wooden table. "I'll gather the team and read it later." He scooped up his suit jacket and nodded to Medibot before making his leave and heading straight for the bathroom.

Once he was in the bathroom he fully stripped, leaving a fresh set of clothes on the bench before stepping into the shower. The cold water was a little numbing initially, but once he got used to it it was incredibly refreshing after a hard battle.

He made sure to lock the shower stall before letting himself remove the balaclava and wash his face and hair.

Despite the cold air brought by the coming peak of winter, the cold water was still a relief. It flushed the heat of his skin away and left him feeling cool.

When he was done showering, he quickly rinsed the balaclava and wrung it dry, rubbing his hair down with a towel before putting it back on. As he changed back into a casual undershirt and a red vest, the door to the bathroom opened.

The RED Scout was nothing at all like the old BLU one. He was a little older, louder, and way more rowdy. Spy immediately noticed how red his knuckles were.

Scout and Spy didn't talk much. There was no need to, and Spy decided it was a good idea to keep it that way. They barely exchanged glances as Scout dumped his new set of clothes onto the bench and disappeared into the shower stall.

The rest of the team was starting to come in to bathe, and it was then Spy decided it was time for him to get out.

The base was blissfully empty, what with most of the team in the showers. Spy headed for the kitchen, swiping the envelope into his gloved hand as he went.

As he put a kettle on to boil, he opened the letter. Inside was a folded piece of paper in print. The team didn't often get letters from Miss Pauling except for their monthly reports, so this was a little thrilling. He pulled out the letter and unfolded it, letting his eyes roam the page.

 _Dear RED team,_

 _The respawn systems have been running for an extended period of time and we have noticed some slight hold ups in the respawn system. To prevent any unwanted deaths, the Administrator is going to shut down respawn for maintenance. As such, you all have been given a month off, effective immediately. Enjoy your holidays._

 _Miss Pauling._

Well wasn't that nice. Spy put the letter back down, unsure of what to make of it. For too long his life had been made out of murder day in day out. Their longest holiday up till now had been a week, and that had been a drag. And now a month...

He pursed his lips and lit himself a cigarette, taking a moment to step away and make himself a cup of coffee. When he came back, Medibot had joined him at the table.

 _"_ _Vell? Vhat is it about?"_

Spy took a long sip of coffee and read the letter again. Yep. They had a month long holiday. "We've been given a month off as they take down the respawn system for maintenance. Effective immediately, so I guess the rest of the day counts as day one." He could hear Medibot's processors whirring as he took in the information.

 _"_ _So… vhat are you going to do?"_ The robot asked. Spy shrugged.

"I don't know. I'll probably see what the rest of the team plans to do first. I'll bring it up at dinner." He folded the letter up again and tucked it back into the envelope. Medibot began to back up.

 _"_ _If zhat's zhe case zhen I'll be going back to zhe office to keep working on research."_ Spy nodded, and Medibot left. He thumbed the letter, careful not to let the red embers fall off the end of his cigarette and onto the pristine envelope.

At dinner, Spy produced the envelope. The rest of the team stared at it like it was holy grail, glowing and shining in comparison to the shabby surroundings. Demoman reached forward to grab the envelope in between chewing on the too-tough chicken breast. As he scanned the letter, he quietly mumbled along the words, occasionally stopping to yell at Soldier to stop trying to grab the letter from him.

When he was done, he passed the letter along the table. "Ach, so we got a whole bloody month off? Wot do they expect us to do? Rot?"

"Ah think they expect us to relax," Engineer mused. He focused himself on eating his vegetables in between trying to tear up the chicken breast into smaller, more manageable pieces.

"Relax? Mate, Oi don't think we know how ta do that anymore." Sniper didn't even bother reading the letter when it was passed to him, simply passing it along to Scout who eagerly took it. "That said though, could always use this time ta go home ta me mum and dad."

Engineer looked up from the shredded chicken breast on his plate. "Yeah, Ah reckon Ah could take the time off to go home to Irene…"

The table began to ripple as the team discussed what they were going to do with their month off. Visiting family, going on holidays, travelling somewhere to relax. It all sounded nice, but Spy didn't really have anywhere to go.

"So where ya going Spah?" Engineer asked, casually looking up at the masked man. He shrugged.

"Probably nowhere. I'll be glad enough when you're all gone and I can have some quiet time without you barbarians all around me. So the sooner all of you leave, the better." He ignored the chicken breast on his plate, finding it too dry to eat. The team looked up as Medibot rolled past the table and straight for the door.

Demoman waved absent-mindedly at him. "Oi lad, where're ye goin'?"

Medibot stopped, staring at the floor for a bit before looking at them. _"Oh, Herr Makina is here to help me vith one of my experiments is all."_ He didn't offer any more explanation before leaving to fetch the Sniperbot who camped at BLU most of the time. They turned their attention back to the letter.

"Man, I'm gonna get the first flight outta here. Can't stand bein' around all ya bozos." Scout had surprisingly managed to eat the entire chicken breast after drowning it in too much gravy to the point where it may as well have been soup. He pushed his chair back and stood up, grabbing his plate and dumping it into the sink. "Yo Medic, I'm gonna borrow your computer to book flight tickets. That's a statement, not a question. We ain't debatin' this shit."

Medic pushed his glasses up his nose, frowning a little at the prospect of Scout possibly searching through his personal research files. Deciding that there would be too much scientific gibberish for Scout to understand, he let it slide. "Fine, fine. Just don't look through my zhings or I vill gut you and use you for mein newest experiment."

Scout rolled his eyes at the threat, scurrying off to the office. Medic suddenly decided he didn't quite trust Scout alone in his office, quickly getting up, putting his plate in the sink and hurrying to the office as well.

One by one the team decided they were done with dinner, leaving Engineer and Spy at the table. They remained in silence for a good long time as Engineer continued to work on tearing up the chicken and trying to find some kind of taste in it without drowning it in gravy like Scout had, and Spy blatantly ignoring Engineer's presence. That is, until Engineer broke the silence.

"How ya holdin' up, Spah?"

Spy raised an eyebrow, nudging the plate away from him. He didn't like wasting food, but the chicken breast was almost inedible by now. "Fine."

"Things have been a lil' different since we came back from fightin' Gray and all that."

Spy did not like where this was going. "And your point?"

Engineer shrugged, giving up on trying to eat the chicken. "Ah'm just sayin', now that we got a month off Ah think you should take the time off to relax, go somewhere. Ah know what happened to Scout was terrible, and Ah'm just sayin' that it's gonna have an effect on-" He cut short as Spy stabbed his butterfly knife into the table. The Texan stared at the gleaming blade.

The Frenchman's eyes had gone completely cold. "Do not talk about him," he snarled. Engineer raised his hands defensively.

"Ah'm just sayin', but it's your call Spah." He got up, taking his plate and Spy's to the sink. "Night pardner."

Spy scowled after him, pulling his knife out of the soft wood.

 _Scout… oh Zack._


	2. The Emotion Manipulator Mess

**A/N: To the anon who asked, no, this isn't a one shot! I expect it to be as long as The Good, The Bad, The Robotic if not even longer!**

Makina had never known discomfort. All his life he'd just rolled with everything thrown at him. Blood, gore, violence, certain things he should not have seen - none of it had affected him at all.

Until now, that was. As he watched Medibot pluck his backup processor right out of his system, he couldn't help but feel slightly squeamish. It meant the emotion manipulator in him was running well and fine, but it wasn't a good feeling. Several months ago he had agreed to have am emotion simulator permanently installed into him, and since then he'd been exposed to the wonderful (and terrifying) world of human emotion. It had helped him to relate to the mercenaries better, but it had also left him worn and tired, unsure how to cope.

His old processor had only happened to recognise annoyance, interest, guilt and satisfaction by accident, but now he had seen fear, hatred, joy, surprise, suspense and the like. Makina wasn't sure if he liked it at all.

 _"_ _Do you think the Admin will let us leave during this break?"_ He wandered. Medibot's attention was mostly on the metal device on the table, but he made time to hum in response.

 _"_ _To be quite frank vith you, I don't zhink zhe Admin really cares vhat ve do, so long it doesn't have anyzhing to do vith her or zhe mercenaries and zheir intel. Vhy asking?"_

Makina refused to look at the processor on the table. _"Well if I have the chance I think I'll go out into town for awhile… take a break or something. There's no reason for me to be cooped up in here. At least you have your research to do."_

Medibot shrugged. " _Vell if you insist. I'd go vith you but I need to stay and do my research. Just don't get into trouble and let me know before you leave, ja?"_ With a hard shove, he pushed the secondary processor back into his system. Makina tried not to complain about the unnecessary force applied, simply taking it and getting up.

" _Alright."_ He paused for an awkward moment, feeling a little upset at how Medibot was acting. He must have been stressed out if he acted so curtly. _"You take care,"_ he added in before hurrying out of the room.

God, that was awkward. Mulling over the decision to take off when the mercenaries left for wherever they were going, he retreated to the storeroom which had so kindly been cleaned out of useless junk to make space for him when he came over to RED. It was an okay place after all the dust had been swept out, with a single, mostly-boarded up window which he could stick his sniper out of and scope around. He had furnished the place with no more than a chair and a charger plugged into the wall socket for the night. As a robot, he didn't need much and he didn't have a knack for interior design either. All he needed was enough for himself to get by in the night, which wasn't anything more than a chair to sit in so he didn't fall over and a charger to recharge his battery.

As mercenaries passed by the closed door, he could hear discussions. Demoman and Scout mentioned something about taking off to Scotland so he could introduce the lad to even greater alcohols. Heavy mumbled about bring his mother a present when he visited. All around him the mercenaries chattered excitedly over their plans, this having been the first break in a long time.

Sighing, he picked up the old sniper rifle leaning against the wall, carefully poking the barrel out through one of the gaps in the boarded up window that provided little light, and lining up the sight with another gap. The scratched and rusted weapon hadn't been fired in ages - he wasn't allowed to shoot during battles and one could only shoot down birds for so long before getting bored.

Drumming his finger against the trigger, he tracked down one of the large birds of prey that circled the hot, blue sky, endlessly searching for prey that had succumbed to the heat. It moved in languid, fluid circles, never circling the same area twice. Makina found it relatively easy to lock onto his target, what with his mechanised system that had originally been made for tracking and shooting. He found himself in line with the bird, his crosshairs tracing the bird's movements easily. Without thinking, he pulled the trigger, steadying the recoil. The bird dropped from the sky and hit the ground, a thin cloud of dust flying into the air around it before settling.

He stared at the dead or dying bird for a while more. Guilt sparked back up, running down his titanium alloy spine and coursing through the rest of him right to the fingertips. Slowly, he pulled the rifle out of the window and slung it over his back, deciding to go out to take a look at the bird. If it wasn't dead, Medic wouldn't mind healing it right? The RED Medic had always liked birds, constantly surrounding himself with doves.

As he left the base's entrance and out onto the old flower patch which had only recently began to grow again, he passed Engineer who was tending to the small shrubs that were growing despite the sweltering hear. The man didn't so much as look up as the robot passed, focusing all his attention on making sure each plant had enough water to survive.

Makina stepped in front of the bird, staring at the clean bullet wound right through its body. He reached down, grabbing it by a wing and lifting it up. It was completely limp, but he couldn't tell if it was dead or not. He had only been programmed to detect if humans were dead, and the thing in his hand was confirmed not human.

Turning to Engineer, he decided the Texan would better be able to decide if the bird was dead. Engineer automatically flinched as the dead bird was tossed right next to his flower patch. "Well what in tarnatio-"

 _"_ _Is it dead?"_ Makina asked, staring at the bird. Engineer experimentally poked it before gingerly holding it by the wing and turning it over. Already it was beginning to turn cold but not stiff yet.

"It's dead alright. Hell, Ah reckon Medic wouldn't mind havin' at it. God knows what that man's ever up to." The Texan shook his head, handing the dead bird back to Makina who simply stared at it in blank confusion. Engineer stretched his back, feeling several satisfying pops before sighing and relaxing. "Y'all should head on back. 'S too hot out here, and that can't be good for the metal." He teasingly tapped Makina's arm.

 _"_ _Aren't you going to go back inside as well? I can take heat better."_

Engineer smiled and shook his head. "Ah gotta take care of the flowers. First time they bloomed in awhile, and Ah'd like to have some colour that isn't red around here. Y'all go on ahead, Ah'll catch up later."

Makina assumed that to be a goodbye and he nodded, readjusting his grip on the bird in his hands and heading back into the base. The air conditioners and fans had all been put on full blast to counter the pulsing heat that had somehow snuck into the stuffy base, and Makina wasn't surprised to see Scout lying on the couch that had been pushed up right under the air conditioner. In his hand he held a notepad and a list of things which Makina assumed to be a packing list, based on the things he was mumbling to himself about extra clothes and stealing Spy's suitcase to fit all of his stuff in.

He didn't have anything to say to Scout, so he simply passed him and went straight to Medic's office. While he spent most of his time over at BLU, he could easily recognise the RED Medic's office, identifiable by the unmistakable red cross on the double doors. Medibot would still be inside, so he simply knocked once and pushed his way in.

" _Back so soon?"_ Medibot asked, pausing when he saw the bird. _"Is zhat for me?"_

Makina lifted the bird up in his hand, trying to push back the guilt as his eyes roamed the bullet wound and feathers matted with blood. _"It's for whoever wants it, I guess. You, the RED Medic…"_ He tossed the bird onto the table, Medibot eagerly scooping it up into his hands.

 _"_ _Vell zhank you very kindly for it. I don't have any plans for it, but who knows vhen it vill come in handy?"_ Medibot seemed excited to have it, turning it over in his hands. Already it was rather stiff, but the robot didn't seem to mind. He continued to look it over before placing it gingerly on the table, picking up a pair of forceps in one hand and digging through the bullet wound for the bullet. He pulled it out with a sickening squelch, to which Makina winced.

Shifting in his spot, Makina did his best to suppress the new, sick feelings that messed with his head. _"I think… I think I'll go. Maybe see how Spy is doing. See you."_ Medibot's reply came as a simple grunt, too focused on his new subject of experiment. As Makina left, he couldn't help but shuffle out to see if Medibot would call him back for company. He didn't.

Loneliness, guilt and disgust were coursing through his system in the form of mixed and confusing signals, stopping several functions and firing up others at the wrong times. His movements were jerky and unstable, and he found himself leaning against the wall soon enough, vision filling up with static and head clouded with errors.

Only that the wall wasn't actually a wall, or so he found out when Spy opened the door from inside his smoking room and Makina fell in.

"Merde-!" Spy flinched as the heavy robot fell right through, crashing onto the floor. Regaining his composure, he frowned. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Makina sighed, his vision going black for a second when he hit the floor. At least when it came back, the static was gone and most of the errors had been solved. _"…Sorry. It's been a rough day. I thought I was leaning against the wall."_

Spy huffed, reaching into his jacket for yet another cigarette. "Well, you weren't. Now get up off my floor, I just had it cleaned." As Makina picked himself up, Spy made sure to notice how odd the robot was acting. "You seem a little… off." Whether the comment had been made out of concern or mockery was up for debate.

" _It's the whole human emotion manipulator thing I've got going. I don't know how you people do it."_

"Guess we're in the same boat then." Now that he had gotten up, Makina could see that Spy looked incredibly tired, as if he hadn't slept throughout the night. For a moment he considered asking, but knowing the assassin's temperament, decided against it. Spy nudged Makina, prompting him out of the room and sliding out himself, closing and locking the door behind him.

 _"_ _So… are you going anywhere during the holiday?"_ Makina asked. He walked alongside Spy as the shorter man headed for the recreation room where Scout still lay.

On instinct, Spy's guard went up at the question. "Why asking?"

 _"_ _Just curious."_

"Non. With everyone else leaving, staying here will be as good a holiday as anything else. A nice, quiet base all to myself." He didn't get two steps past the couch when Scout recognised the sound of his shoes tapping on the polished floor, the younger mercenary flipping around on the couch, awkwardly reaching a hand out to try get Spy's attention. Spy sniffed at the sight of Scout twisted awkwardly on the couch, hands stretched out one way and legs draped on the other side of the couch.

Taking a second to readjust himself so he wasn't so uncomfortable, Scout grinned. "Yo Spy, can ya do me a favou-"

"Non."

"Ya haven't even heard me! Just do me a solid for one day and drive me to the airport tomorrow will ya?" When Spy opened his mouth to reject him again, he pressed on. "Come on, ya get to get rid of me after that."

Spy frowned. "And why can't you take ze bushman's van?"

"He's leaving like, really early man! I ain't stayin' at the freakin' airport for six hours. Come on man, just this one time and I swear I'll never sneak into ya stupid room again." Scout put on the puppy eyes, though to both Makina and Spy it only looked like a bug-eyed Scout.

For a long minute Spy had a staring contest with Scout, who's eyes seemed to get bigger and more pleading with each second. Eventually, Spy rolled his eyes and relented. "Fine. Just one time, but you do not get to touch the radio or anything in the car. And I leave at eight. If you're late, I'm not taking you."

Scout pumped his fist in the air in victory, flopping back around on the couch. Pretending Scout didn't exist anymore, Spy turned back to Makina. "I guess I'm still busy anyway."

 _"_ _Oh, that's no problem. Actually… I think I'm going to go. I need to recharge my battery."_ Spy's reply was a nod and a small _hmm,_ and Makina retreated back to his room while the feelings of loneliness crept back into his system. As he dragged himself back to his room, static began to fill his vision again and he barely got the door open before his entire system shut down again.

What a mess these emotions were.


	3. Road to Nowhere

**A/N: Thank you all for the follows and favourites so far! Let's keep this ball rolling.**

The base began to move and come to life around five in the morning. Lights turned on and off, the light hiss of the kettle already floating beyind the kitchen and the soft rustle of bags as mercenaries began to wake up and prepare to leave for their holidays. Once the mercenary left, the base would grow quiet again for a half hour or so before someone else woke up to catch his flight.

BLU was doing the same, it seemed. Makina had been awake since Sniper had first woken up at four and left the base in his van, and was now peering over at BLU through his scope. Deciding the recreation room would provide him a better view, he pulled the rifle from the gap in the boarded up window and retreated from the closet, careful to make his movements as light as possible to prevent waking anyone up.

He made it to the recreation room with as little sound as possible, pulling up a chair to sit on as he gazed out of the frosted window and over to BLU where their Medic's office light was on. He could see the BLU Medic's cat sitting by the window and staring into dark nothingness, before the Medic himself came to the window, setting a pet carrier down by Schnaps. It took Horst a little coaxing to get his cat into the carrier, Makina could see.

When Schnaps was in the carrier, Horst disappeared from sight. Zooming in as much as possible, he noticed Schnaps stick her paw out of one of the bars in the cage and paw at the latch till it came loose, letting herself free. She raised her tail high, rubbing herself against the cage and silently calling for attention from the Medic.

"You're up early." Makina turned around, all processors whirring as the voice floated towards him. He relaxed when he recognised Pyro, out of his asbestos suit and dressed casually in a thick cotton shirt a grey hoodie and jeans. Behind him was a small, red roller suitcase. "I thought you'd be recharging."

 _"I recharged early. Besides..."_ His eyes trailed Axel as he experimentally touched the kettle. Had Makina not known his pyrokinesis powers, he'd have winced for the kettle still steamed. _"There's a nice quality to the base when it's dark and no one's around."_

Axel hummed, refilling the kettle and lightly blasting it with a few bouts of fire straight from the hand. "There is, isn't there?" The Pyro asked, making himself a cup of coffee. The steam was mesmerising to watch.

Makina turned back to the window. He saw Horst come back to Schnaps, bag in hand, and attempt to lure her back into the cage with what looked like a really small, pea-sized pebble. Schnaps didn't quite buy the trick, knowing her owner wanted her in the cage. Instead, she jumped on top of the cage, demanding attention from Horst.

 _"Where are you going?"_ Makina asked. " _To see family?"_

Axel pursed his lips. "Nah, I don't have any family. Horst is taking me to his hometown to see the sights and stuff and to meet his wife. Apparently he tells her a lot about me." He sipped the coffee, occassionally just holding his face over the steam to warm himself.

The Sniperbot's eyes lowered when he realised what had happened to the Pyro's parents. In an instant guilt sparked up again, his vision automatically dimming. _"Oh... I'm sorry about your parents."_

Pyro waved it off. "It's all good, it's been an awfully long time. Hah, they left when I was eleven. I'm twenty nine now, so I'm over it." Still, Makina could detect the very slight slump of his shoulders, but he shook it out quickly. He gulped down the last of the coffee, quickly rinsing the cup in the sink and leaving it upside down on the drying rack.

Another look out of the window and Makina could see Schnaps was no longer on the cage, but her paw was sticking out of it and trying to fiddle with the latch again. Horst lightly touched her paw and it disappeared back in. He double checked the cage, picked it up and left.

"Hey, so I gotta go to catch Horst. You wanna come to say hi and bye to him?" Axel asked. He rummaged through his bag quickly to make sure he had everything before zipping it up again. Makina could just catch a glimpse of the brown handle of the Pyro's beloved axe inside. How he was going to get that past security, he wasn't going to ask.

He quickly considered the options, running a list of pros and cons through his head. There weren't any cons except maybe having Schnaps scratch his metal again (like she enjoyed doing every time she saw him), so he nodded.

The outside was still chilly with fading night breezes, stars still twinkling above with only a single lonely pale cloud floating by. The moon was a crisp crescent in the middle of the gorgeous, dark early morning sky. Makina took a second to simply stare up at them.

Axel led him beyond RED's side of the arena and over to BLU and around back. There, Horst was packing his car with his luggage. He had wrapped himself in a black leather jacket, pulled high up on his shoulders.

The sound of footsteps had him turning around, a smile tugging at his lips when he saw Axel and Makina.

"Ah, hello Herr Axel. Is Herr Makina coming as vell? I haff plenty of space in zhe car although I don't know how to get him pass airport security." Schnaps called loudly from the cage, a tan paw reaching out from the darkness to touch Makina lightly. Several claws lightly brushed his metal and he instinctively shied away.

 _"No, I just thought I'd come down to say bye or something."_ Looking into the simple black car there wasn't too much, just a single brown suitcase on the rear end seat with an empty spot next to it for Axel's things.

Axel opened the car door and slid his suitcase in next to Horst's, helping Horst put Schnaps's cafe securely in between them and strapping it down with the seatbelt.

"Vell I hope you aren't too bored here, zhough I doubt you vill be. I hear Herr Medibot has a lot of experiments to do and I'm certain you can help him vith some of zhem." He and Axel got into the car, Axel rolling down his side of the window.

"Hey, take care okay? I know this is cheesy as hell but you know, shit can happen. Just give me or the Doc a call if shit goes down back here and we'll come right back." Axel adjusted himself so that his elbow was leaning on the car window. "Don't know about the others but yeah, just call us if you need."

Makina nodded. _"I will. You guys take care too."_ He stepped back as the car window rolled up again, and taking off out of the boundary of Teufort. The red headlights on the back of the car grew smaller and smaller till it eventually disappeared.

He stood out in the cold morning air a little more, before deciding there was nothing left to do out there. He turned back to RED's base, where the lights had been turned off. If he remembered correctly, no one else would be up till just before sunrise.

Except Medibot, who was already out and about.

 _"Good morning Herr Makina. How long have you been up?"_ He quickly looked Makina up and down, eyes dimming a little as he scanned him. " _Vere you outside? You're very cold."_

His system warmed a little with embarrassment at being scolded by Medibot. Before he could defend himself, Medibot threw a cowl at him. It was a dark grey, old thing with a big hole in it to fit his head through. There was a thick hood attached to it.

 _"I found it in zhe cupboard. It'll keep you warm."_ Makina experimentally slipped it over his head. He wasn't quite used to wearing anything so he found it awkward. That was something to get used to.

" _...Thanks. I'm going to go back to my room."_ He readjusted the hood again and decided to go recharge his battery again. Medibot nodded and let him go to presumably go back to his office.

The base went quiet for another two hours or so, the time in which Makina took to idle and slowly charge his battery. Only when the sun began to peek over the dusty horizon of Teufort did people begin to stir once more.

When he finally decided to poke his head back out of the room again he heard the clinking of spoons and bowls as well as Soldier and Scout arguing over something.

Soldier, Scout, and Demoman were having a rather loud conversation over baseball versus football while shovelling cereal into their mouths. There were bits of cereal and drops of milk all over the table. Spy had decided to skip breakfast and was simply sippimg a cup of coffee while he stared out of the same window Makina had been just a couple hours ago.

"Hurry up Scout, I don't have all day. You get into my car later by a second and I'm not taking you," Spy growled. His hood was dropped down onto his shoulders. Seeing it made Makina uncomfortably aware of the cowl he had as well.

Scout pulled himself away from the conversation at hand briefly to reply Spy. "Yeah yeah, ya told me this already!"

Makina jerked a little as Engineer passed. "Mornin' partner."

He didn't give the fleeting idea a second thought. Reaching out, he grabbed Engineet and tugged him back. The Texan stared at him with questioning eyes.

 _"Can you drive me out into the city?"_

Engineer scratched his head. "Well hell pardner, Ah don't know. When d'ya wanna go? Ah still gotta catch a flight."

 _"Whenever you leave. I just need to go out for awhile."_ He sincerely hoped Engineer wouldn't question.

Engineer thought about it for a second. "Well, Ah guess Ah could drop ya off on mah way to the airport. Ah'm gonna be leaving in two hours so if ya could hop into the van by then Ah could drive ya out."

If Makina was capable of grinning, he would have. The thrill of leaving on his own fired up the emotion processor, leaving him itching to go already.

Medibot should know he was leaving, right? Yet, some child-like part within him enjoyed the thrill of not telling, like some secret mission. He stared into the hall in the general direction of the medbay, and decided not to tell.

 _"Thanks Engineer. I'll be there."_ Engineer nodded, glad to be able to help the stressed robot with whatever he needed.

Now, what was there to bring? What did he need out there with him? What was he even expecting in the city? For one thing, he was expecting people to still hold a grudge against the robots, so weapons would be necessary. The sniper rifle was definitely coming along with him, as well as the kukri. But he wanted to travel light. His charging cable would be needed too, and since the weather was turning cold he'd take the cowl as well.

He soon became absorbed into the whole thing. He checked his weapons over to make sure they were in good condition, as well as spending time cleaning them out for good measure. He recharged his battery again despite having only dropped a few percent, and for the rest of the time sat drumming his fingers on his thigh and thinking about what the city would be like now that people had presumably returned to it.

Before long, Engineer was knocking on the door. "Hey, ya coming?" Makina quickly gathered his things (which weren't much) and was out in an instant.

Engineer chuckled. "Boy, ya sure are excited."

They filed down to the lone truck in the parking lot - just barren, dry land - out back. Everyone else had left except Spy who had since returned from fetching Scout, though no one had seen him around.

Makina strapped his rifle around his back and got into the passenger seat while Engineer got into the driver's. As the old engine rumbled to life, Makina let himself go into idle mode to dull the drumming, conflicted feelings about the whole thing. He was here now, and there was no backing out.

Besides, how bad could a trip to the city be?


	4. This is what good people do

The city wasn't as busy as had expected. It didn't so much look like something out of a horror film, but it was no metropolis. The airport was nothing fancy and whoever was there ignored the truck as it drove up, too busy hurrying into the building to catch their flights. Several shops along the way had been shut down when their owners had left the city during the attack, and never returned.

No one else was in the hollow carpark of the airport when Engineer stepped out, followed by Makani.

"Say pardner, ya aren't planning on staying in the city too long are ya?" Engineer fiddled with the truck's keys and it locked with an obedient beep.

He wasn't planning on staying too long right? The Sniperbot blindly nodded along even before he had truly decided how long he was going to stay. The next thing he knew, Engineer had tossed his keys into his cold, steel palms.

"Ya can take the truck back to base when ya leave then. Keep the keys safe." Makina wasn't given a chance to argue. Engineer was already hurrying off into the airport. Makina only caught the last bit of his overalls paired with a plain red shirt before that disappeared around a corner.

 _"...Great."_ He didn't have pockets to store the keys in and kept them clutched in one hand, one finger through the loop of the keychain in case it decided to slip out of his grasp.

The carpark echoed like some wind tunnel, dense, dirty air filled with carbon monoxide bouncing off the walls. Makina let his eyes roam the blank, cement walls marked with dust and dirt until they came across a large sign painted on the wall in red that screamed EXIT.

Following the directions indicated by the bold words, Makina stuck close to the wall until it reached a plain, unassuming door. Behind the door was a dirt-stained stairwell.

Stairs. Did he have an experience with stairs.

* * *

"All passengers please fasten your seatbelts. The plane will be taking off shortly." The intercom clicked off as air stewardesses quickly roamed the aisle to make sure everything was in place.

Axel leaned his head against the window and stared out onto the runway. Next to him, Horst had busied himself with looking through the lunch menu.

"Hey... you think he'll be fine?" Axel ventured, his eyes fixated on the runway that was starting to move by faster and faster.

"Who?"

"Makina." The younger mercenary pulled himself away from the window as the plane leaned back and raised itself into the air. "This morning he was acting pretty weird. Actually, he's been overall out of his game since Medibot installed that emotion processor or whatever the heck. You should know, he spends more time at BLU."

Horst closed the menu and slotted it back into the seat pocket. "He doesn't come out a lot. Locks himself into his room, Gott knows vhat he does in zhere." He sighed and leaned back into his seat. "But you're right. Maybe it vasn't a good idea to have zhat processor installed. Robots aren't exactly built for human emotion and zhis vould all be new to him. But vhat can ve do?"

"…Nothing really. I just hope he doesn't get into trouble or whatever while we're gone."

* * *

The city was a little more alive on the street level. He could see a few people roaming the pavements idly, some disappearing into shops and others continuing on to their destinations. It was almost quite enjoyable, to not see the city like a ghost town like that last time he'd been there.

He stood where he was by the carpark's exit, watching in awe as the world continued on. The sound of light chatter, cars honking and engines revving, footsteps on the cement pavement, it was all so much to take in!

Aimlessly he picked a direction and began to walk, admiring everything about the city. In warm, midmorning daylight, everything seemed to be touched with a pale yellow light. Shadows retreated into their alleyways and corners and hid behind people who walked the wrong way. As he went, he became increasingly aware of those who stared and whispered, though he was left alone for the most part.

Of course, it was hard for some people to forget the past invasion, and the attention of someone was caught from the inside of a little inn as Makina passed the window. The motel owner gasped as she locked her gaze onto the robot, letting herself take a second to confirm what she was seeing before lunging forward to grab the phone off the dark oak counter.

"Hello, police? There's another one of those damn robots wandering the streets again. It's right outside my motel."

Makina didn't notice the motel. If he had, he sure as hell would not have walked near it. He passed without realising, having gone a block down before the sound of sirens got closer and closer. Assuming it was just a human thing, he ignored it and kept walking. The next turn was blocked by two police cars on the road. Turning around, another two drove up.

The doors flung open and policemen filed out of the cars, guns pointed at him. "Get on the ground now!" One of them yelled.

The idea clicked. From where he stood, he could see the motel's sign hanging from the side of the past block. _"Oh…"_ Maybe these guys were more reasonable. _"Look, I'm not like those robots from the las-"_ A warning shot pinged by his foot. _"Guess you guys aren't so great either."_

Deciding he did not want to get destroyed out here, he obeyed their orders and lowered himself to the ground, cautiously watching them get closer. He heard one of them mumble something about being lucky that they were given orders not to kill on sight. A pair of rough hands jammed his hands together behind his back and clipped on a pair of handcuffs before hauling him to his feet. A crowd of people had already gathered to watch, people whispering and pointing and taking pictures of the scene.

Static crept at the edges his vision, and for a brief moment, a voice whispered in his head. _I should kill them. No one would never know._ It was just a fleeting moment and it was gone in a split second. Makina couldn't place the voice - it sounded so familiar yet unrecognisable.

His thoughts were overtaken by the sound of the two police officers up front driving the car, their insulting comments about robots floating around the back of the car. "-burned it. Maybe the chief will throw this one into the incinerator just like all its friends." The two began to laugh out loud at their apparently-funny joke, completely ignoring Makina in the back.

"Hey, any progress on the case of the missing people?" One of them asked. The driver shrugged.

"Nah. It's an old case. What, couple of years now? You'd think Chief has given up by now."

Makina listened in carefully on their conversation. In the entirety of the ride, he learnt of multiple cases that the two policemen discussed, had to sit in on several uncomfortable discussions about women, and dealt with a lot of insults. He didn't say anything in case they stopped talking, only pretending to have gone inactive. They probably couldn't tell the difference.

The police station was nothing impressive. It was a bleak, grey building with cracks running along the walls and uninviting, harsh fluorescent lights that bounced off not-so-pristine white tiles on the inside. Makina found himself dumped into a holding cell. _This isn't the first time I've been in a cell._

For hours he was ignored and he ended up going idle to conserve battery power, seeing as how they were unlikely to be giving him a charger and a power socket. He managed to stave off boredom for a while longer but eventually, it crept into his system, urging him to do something. Anything at all.

Going out of idle mode, he let his eyes roam the wall and he began to trail the cracks that marked the plain walls. When he was done with that, he tried to count how many times someone passed his cell, though no one did for over an hour. He was ready to go back to idle mode and try to let the rest of the day go by on its own when someone came up to his cell.

"Get up. You're headed for the incinerator." The officer grabbed him and hauled him to his feet.

Incinerator? Oh no. Makina dug his heels into the floor and tried to yank himself out of the man's grasp. If he could get out of his grip, he could probably easily kill him with his weight. He was about a good two hundred pounds and if he hit hard enough, he was certain he could daze him long enough to run. But where would he run?

"What the-" Makina didn't give the officer time to think, headbutting him as hard as possible. Good thing robots still didn't know pain, for a good lot of blood was welling up from the man's head. A little bit of blood dripped from the brim of his metal mat and onto the stained floor.

Popping off one shoulder and swinging it around so his arms were no longer behind his back, he grabbed the gun from the downed officer on the floor, letting his other arm hang off the handcuff attached to both wrists. He fired once, twice at the officers blocking the door, gunshots echoing through the building. He continued to empty the rest of the clip into whoever came close to him until finally, the sound of gunfire faded away into stony silence. Several bullets from the officers had managed to catch him, but they hadn't hit anything important.

The sight of bodies felled at the door made him a little sick, but the guilt was far better than the idea of going into the incinerator. He began to rifle through the officers for another gun with a bullet loaded and fired it through the chain of the handcuff before reattaching his arm. Medibot was not going to be happy that he had popped it off again.

 _They didn't like me anyway._ The voice returned, a brief whisper in his mind before it faded away. He knew it was not his own, but ignored it as a part of his messed up code.

He needed a weapon. He continued to rifle through the bodies until he found the gun with the least blood on it, pocketing it. It was time to get out of there, but where would he go? It was clear a lot of people in the city didn't want him around now, but he wasn't ready to return to base yet.

But, could he prove himself? That he wasn't bad? He chose to ignore that fact that he had just killed a lot of people. Those two officers in the car mentioned something about missing people. He was a good tracker, he could find them.

He wandered around the building till he found the file room and began to search for something on missing people. _"Where is it, where is it?"_ There wasn't enough time to look through everything, so he grabbed the folder titled "Unresolved Cases" and left. Hopefully, it would have something that could help him prove to people that he wasn't so bad.

He gathered himself and readjusted the cloak Medibot had given him, starting to walk towards where he assumed was the edge of the city. Maybe the suburbs weren't as bad as the heart, and that someone was willing to let him camp for awhile while he read up on the folder he had stolen. _This is what good people do,_ the voice whispered.

 _"_ _Yeah yeah… this is what good people do,"_ he mumbled along. He made a mental note to also try find out who the voice belonged to but for now, he took it as his only companion in a harsh, unwelcoming world.


	5. Conflicts and Milk

"Horst, are you sure zhat's enough for dinner?"

"Ja, ja, ve're fine Helga! Ve ate a lot less back at zhe base."

The two men had planted themselves in front of the television right after swooping up massive bowls of cereal and a huge jug of milk, their attention not having moved at all since they switched to one of the late night movies.

Helga shook her head at the two. After the formalities and once Helga had gotten to know Axel a little better through light dinner conversation (and Horst mentioning a lot of rather embarrassing things), the two men had gone channel surfing until they found something interesting to watch.

She turned away from them, deciding to busy herself with checking her phone. Her eyes didn't quite read anything, constantly scrolling past article after article of supposedly new recipes, ways to impress your friends without doing anything, how to lose ten pounds in a week - wait, she wasn't fat. Why did she even subscribe to articles like that?

Her finger swiped past an article but her mind just registered a familiar face. Carefully, she scrolled back up.

"Horst, isn't zhis your friend?"

"Vhat?" Horst's eyes remained fixed on the screen where a violent battle was going on. His fingers clutched his bowl of cereal in anticipation and excitement.

Helga thrust her phone into his hands. Grumbling at needing to look away from the screen, he tapped on the phone.

Axel shied away from Horst's incessant poking that came after. "What?" He asked, irritation lacing his voice.

"Look at zhis." He handed the phone over. Black and white stills of security footage covered the page, along with red headlines in capital letters that screamed "ASSAULT ON POLICE STATION LEAVES 6 DEAD. ROBOT AT LARGE."

Looking closer at the stills of security footage, he could make out a familiar Sniperbot frisking corpses, and the second still of him fleeing. "Oh…"

Scrolling the rest of the page, nothing mentioned Makina having been caught. "I can't believe it's barely been a day and he's already in trouble. And he left the base too." Axel handed back the phone and sunk into the carpet, stuffing a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "Whatever it is, he can probably handle himself. I told him to call one of us if he really gets into trouble and so far, he hasn't."

"Who's zhat?" Helga asked, peering over the couch.

Horst handed back the phone. "It's just one of our friends is all. Zhat robot I told you about? Yeah, it's him."

Almost immediately, their attention went back to the television. "Aren't you going to help him…?" Helga ventured.

"Nein."

"Nope."

Helga sighed. Oh well, it wasn't her business. If they were confident enough in their friend to be alright, then she was not going to bother them.

* * *

The grass turned from too-green to a sort of sunburned ochre, buildings losing their glass and shiny exteriors in favour of plainer, unassuming cement. People began to return home as the street lights went dim, houses lighting up from the inside instead.

Makina had spent the last few hours camping behind a small store by the rubbish chute. While it was not the most comfortable, he had not been bothered throughout the day and it gave him plenty of time to look through the files he'd stolen.

Words had gone by like the hours, page after page of detailed reports regarding the progress of the investigation of missing people and papers including the details of those who had gone missing a long time ago. Some were reported to have been deceased while others were still unknown.

Makina watched carefully as the last people from the store locked up and left. Even after they were gone, he waited a few more minutes before getting up, pushing bags of trash off him and dusting the folder off.

 _Let's check the houses,_ the voice whispered. It faded away before Makina could grab at it. Check the houses… there wasn't anything to check for. He followed its instructions anyway, heading from the back of the store and into the neighbourhood of houses. He kept to the shadows as far as possible, ducking under windows and sliding through darkness until he came across a house with its lights off. The yard faced the beginnings of the forest, away from everyone else.

Stored in the yard was a kayak that looked like no one had touched for years, along with boxes and a tarp covering it all - albeit poorly. Weathered edges of boxes and the kayak poked out from under the murky tarp. The house was completely dark - not a single light inside on. Deciding the yard was a decent place to stay for the night, he hopped over the fence and into the yard. Climbing into the kayak wasn't as easy, his feet slipping on the smooth surface of the kayak and making enough noise for him to freeze up.

He looked back up to the house. Had anyone seen him? Nothing in the house shifted, so he readjusted himself back into the kayak.

Settling into idle mode, he let the sound of trees rustling and distant houses moving and shifting from within lull him into a restless wait.

Hours later, he was jerked out of his wait by the sound of footsteps and an incessant exclamation mark blinking in his vision.

His processor went cold as the footsteps got closer, and someone began talking. "God damnit, the boxes fell again." Outside the kayak, someone began to move the boxes.

There was a moment of silence before the tarp shifted. Makina did his best to wriggle the pistol he'd stolen from the cops. Moonlight flooded in as the tarp was yanked off and Makina leapt out, pointing his weapon.

"Whoa-!" Immediately the man raised his hands, backing away from the robot. "Look man, I don't mean any harm!"

Makina quickly scanned him. There were no weapons on him and in the pale light, he didn't seem very dangerous either. _"You… really don't mean harm."_ Slowly, he lowered his weapon and holstered it.

"I don't but… man, you're one of those robots that the cops said were in the city some time ago. I…"

 _"_ _Do not call the cops."_ His hand went to the pistol again and immediately the man froze.

"Okay… okay… I'm not going to call the cops but I'm going to go inside because I don't want to get caught out here with… you." He turned to go back into the house. "I suggest you come in here too. The cops patrol the area regularly now and you probably don't want to be seen out. They do some nasty shit to robots."

Makina was surprised at the invitation to enter the house. The man didn't look back, simply disappearing into darkness. Well, a house was better than standing outside, wasn't it?

Taking up the offer, he followed the man into the house.

 _Nice place. I could live here._

"Heh, oddly enough my friend used to say that when he came over."

Makina didn't realised what he said. _"What?"_

The man chuckled. "My friend used to say he could live here when he came over. Damn fucker didn't like his own home so he bunked over whenever he could."

Makina stared down at the folder in his hands. The man took a seat on the patchy couch. For awhile, both of them stared at each other.

"So, what's your name dude? Or do I just call you robot?"

Makina hummed at the comment. He hated being called a robot. _"You can call me Makina."_

"Is Mac alright?"

 _"…_ _I guess so."_

The man got up and approached, offering a hand. "Name's Dave. Yeah." Makina shook his hand.

The Sniperbot glanced from Dave to the folders. Surely someone living here would know something about the missing people. _"Do you happen to know anything about missing people?"_

"Depends on what you want to know, really. They didn't tell us much about them."

 _"_ _Do you happen to know anyone in here?"_ He waved the folder a bit.

Dave narrowed his eyes at the folder in Makina's hand with the giant red stamp that said "Confidential". "Where did you get that?"

 _"_ _It doesn't matter. I just need to know if you know anyone in here."_

Dave took the folder reluctantly, opening it and flipping till he found the brief profiles of those who had gone missing. The first few profiles were as detailed as possible, but as the number of people increased, profiles began to get shorter and shorter until it was just the basics squeezed into a page.

His eyes widened when he got to a specific page, then he chuckled. "Oh man, Max is here. Yeah, the damn bastard sorta just disappeared one day. Friends keep telling me to let it go and accept that he's probably dead but y'know, it's hard to do that with best friends."

Makina took back the folder. On the page was a picture of a fairly young man - probably in his mid twenties. Across his picture DECEASED was stamped right across. He didn't bother to look at the details of the man, but he seemed familiar. At the same time, he couldn't place who he was.

 _"_ _Any idea where he last was?"_ Makina asked.

Dave shrugged. "Beats me. He goes everywhere and nowhere all at once. But he loves going out of the city to the drier parts. No clue why. So maybe you'd check there."

 _"_ _The drier parts, so the desert? In the east?"_

"Yeah, that's the one. I can't remember where it was or if there's anything there." Dave leaned back into his seat.

 _"_ _The desert… that's where Gray's factory was. I don't suppose you happen to be willing to drive me out to the desert?"_

Dave frowned. "Nawh man, the cops told us to stay away from that place as far as possible. Who knows what shit's out there?"

Makina sighed. He looked around the room. _"You got a car?"_

"Yep, it's outside."

Makina turned and headed straight for the front door without a word. "Hey, where the hell are you going?"

He followed Makina out and found him heading for the car. He knew a thing or two about hotwiring a car.

"Really? You can't just take my car, you don't have the keys and-" He stopped mid sentence as Makina successfully opened the car door by use of sheer force. "You're kidding me."

 _"_ _I am not. I need to go to Gray's old factory."_ He cringed a little on the inside at the though of going back to that hell hole. _"You're welcome to follow though. I don't have a good track record of keeping cars safe."_

Dave frowned as Makina got into the driver's seat. Could he risk his car or his life?

The car did cost money and he didn't have a very good insurance on it, so he found himself pushing Makina into shotgun and himself taking over as the driver.

"Listen man, this is just a one time thing okay? And if the car gets destroyed then…"

 _"_ _Then I'll buy you lunch or something. I hear it's a thing people do."_

Dave huffed. "Fine. But I get to choose where to eat."


	6. Ghost of Craziness Past

Dave hadn't left the city in the long time, or so Makina suspected, based on how general instructions didn't help the man in navigating the crowded place. For the time being, Makina let himself become a navigator, droning on instructions on which turn to take. Turn left here, head straight there, stick to the left lane.

 _I miss drives like these. Drives of no consequence,_ the voice whispered. For a second Makina thought it was his own mind saying that, but remembering how the last time he'd taken a car had been consequentially chaotic and destructive, he figured it was that strange voice again.

After Dave had successfully managed to find the east exit, Makina settled back into the leather chair. "About how long is it till we get there? And… how _do_ we get there in the first place?"

 _"_ _Just drive straight. There's a dirt path that looks like someone was dragged through it so… you can't really miss it. It'll take maybe half an hour or so."_

For a fleeting moment, he felt like he wanted to call Medibot just to ask him how he was and make sure he was fine. But knowing how he didn't like to be bothered when working, he decided against it.

The drive was uneventful until the remains of the factory was in sight. The first few days after it was cleared out, it was cordoned off as a crime scene and then it was scheduled to be destroyed. However, government funding must have been short from restoring the city and paying insurance, for its destruction was later canceled and the factory was left standing in all its chaos.

This time, several cop cars were around the factory. "What the heck?"

From the chaos of cars and cops and in the midst of shouting, was another robot.

 _"_ _Hey, hey listen guys! I'm not all that bad! Look, just give me a chance and I'll show it! I even deleted everything I know about combat!"_ The robot yelled.

 _"_ _Slow down. I think I know who that is,"_ Makina instructed. Dave slowed the car down and Makina rolled down the window, zooming in on the chaos. And sure enough, right in the midst of it, was Freedom. _"Of course it's him."_

Deciding he didn't want any attention from the cops, he made to send a message to him, but Freedom noticed the car and also the blinking internal radar in his vision that told him a friendly bot was nearby.

 _"Hey! Mac! It's me!"_ Freedom started shouting. Immediately the attention of the cops went to them.

 _"Great."_ Makina drew his pistol and fired into the crowd once, twice. The cops ducked aside, giving Freedom the time to start running. It wasn't long before they returned fire at the car.

Bullet pinged on the dusty ground, small clouds of sand and dust flying up as each bullet hit. Several hit the car, causing Dave to yelp in surprise. "Dude, we gotta go man! They're fuckin' shooting us!"

Makina did his best to shield the open window. If a bullet hit him, that was fine. He couldn't afford to let Dave get shot. _"Just wait,"_ he hissed.

Freedom came running up to the car, flinging the back door open. _"Hah! Them ol' bolts still got it. How ya doin' Mac?"_

 _"Talk later Freedom. Dave, Floor it!"_

Dave slammed the accelerator down and the car sped off away from the factory. _"Wait, where the hell are you going?"_ Makina snapped.

"We can't exactly go to that place with the cops there man! Look, we'll go back, wait till things calm down then try again." Dave's brows furrowed in frustration.

 _"What's the worse that could happen?"_ Makina asked. Irritation was starting to bubble up, the corners of his vision starting to fizz with static.

Dave shifted gear and pushed the car was fast as it could go. Sirens were wailing behind them fast and bullets continued to whizz by.

"They could fuckin' hang me man. Anyone caught harboring a robot like you is liable for death."

The reality of it set in, and Makina sighed. _"But you can't just ditch me like this."_

A bullet smashed through the back window. _"I hate to be the killjoy here men, but the cops are right on our tails!"_

Turning around, Makina tossed his pistol into Freedom's hands. _"Here, take this and use it."_

 _"What- but Mac! You know I can't shoot! I don't know how to!"_

Irritated, Makina lunged back, grabbing Freedom's hand with the weapon, aiming it out of the back window and jamming down the trigger. He managed to withstand the recoil and one of the police cars suddenly swerved out of its lane, smashing into a second.

Three cars still followed.

"What the fu-!"

The car they were in suddenly swerved and lurched forward, before it flipped once, twice, three times and went tumbling down a cliffside. The wail of sirens faded away as the car went down.

Dave didn't quite think a car could roll for that long and he blacked out just as it came to a stop at the bottom of a cliff by a small river.

 _Your system shut down due to an error. Restart running processes?_

 _Yes._

Freedom's vision slowly returned and the old Soldierbot found himself staring up at a frame of thin trees. White noise slowly quietened and faded away and eventually turned to the soft rushing of water, and the distant call of birds.

Rolling over, he pushed himself into a kneeling position, only to find that one of his legs was missing. _"Maggots. Stupid thing popped off again."_

Dragging himself towards the smoking wreckage, he began to dig, pulling away pieces of debris and hot metal. _"Aha!"_

He pulled out what he thought was the lower half of his leg, only to snort in dismay when he found it was an arm instead.

He stared at the arm for a good long minute, turning it over and trying to figure out whose it was. It wasn't until he turned it over and saw the faded Sniper symbol on the side that he panicked.

 _"Mac!"_ Tossing the arm aside carelessly, Freedom began to frantically throw debris aside to find his friend.

 _"Mac, where are you? Come on, you rusty bastard! Don't tell me I'm alone in this."_

He rounded on the flipped car and peered in through the door. Inside, Dave was trying to unbuckle himself from the seat and Makina had gone right through the window and was under the car's front.

"Wanna give me a hand?" Dave asked. He fiddled with the seatbelt until it came loose. "Or at least move out of the way so I get out of this."

 _"I do not want to give you a hand, maggot. I need to give Mac his hand. Literally."_ He backed up and went around to the hood, slipping his hands under it and making a futile attempt to pull the car up. _"I wish I knew where my leg was. It's hard to pull up a car while kneeling."_

Hissing as he lightly touched the scratches and bruises on him, Dave made a move to help Freedom. He winced as he pulled up the hood of the car with whatever strength he had, providing just barely enough space for Freedom to pull the Sniperbot out.

Immediately Freedom grabbed Makina and dragged him out, successfully creating long scratches on him. _"Speak to me Mac! Speak to me! I already deleted those 'hold your friend's processors in while you scream at the sky' files! I can't do it!"_

Dave watched in amusement. How dramatic.

Makina started back up. The light in his eyes brightened and the quiet whirr of his processors came again. _"Let go of me Freedom."_ He felt incredibly awkward in the other robot's embrace.

 _"Mac! You're alright!"_ Freedom released his friend. _"I thought I was left with him for sure."_ He gestured to Dave and was replied with a snort.

 _"Where's my hand? And your leg?"_ Makina asked.

Looking back in the general direction he'd thrown the arm in, Freedom shrugged. _"Somewhere. For sure."_

With a grunt Makina pulled himself to his feet, wiping off as much dirt as spilled oil as possible. The remainder left streaks on the scratched metal. Medibot would be so upset.

He rounded on the car, his feet leaving light trails where they dragged against the soft ground. Hidden between a tangle of roots and broken branches he found the detached arm, no worse for wear. A little twisting had it back into its socket again.

 _"_ _Not exactly good as new but… good enough. Now, let's get that leg of yours."_ He ducked back into the smouldering remains of the car, pushing away shrapnel and debris in an attempt to find Freedom's missing leg.

The metal limb was trapped behind the torn and smoking driver's seat. Grabbing onto the leg, Makina sharply yanked the leg out, falling onto his back as he went. _"…Got it."_

Freedom fiddled with the detached limb until things connected together again and it didn't pop off. _"Thanks Mac but… what do we do now?"_ He gestured to the wreck of the car. Dave stared in dismay.

"We should go," Dave interrupted. "The cops will eventually come ere to salvage what they can and try track us down so a head start would be nice before they get here."

He didn't wait for the robots, turning, picking a random direction and marching off.

"Stupid damn robots," Dave hissed under his breath, "breaking my fucking car. I try to be nice and help the guy out and what do I get? Nothing!" He froze as his voice rang out in the thin forest, several birds in trees chirping their replies.

He turned around to see if Makina and Freedom had heard, but they weren't quite there. Looking around, they weren't anywhere near.

Bile rose in his throat and his heart began to pound, slamming against his chest. His eyes grew wild as he kept scanning the forest for one of them. He couldn't be alone. He didn't know where he was.

 _Fear is what drives us._ Dave remembered his old friend's distinct words. _People run on fear and stress but they do stupid things. Clear your head and get going._

He shook his head. "Max always had a clear head…" He muttered. Looking back now, Max always had a sort of coldness to him that Dave could ignore. Since high school he always did the craziest things. _Hey, what if we trash the principal's office? What if we jack up the car outside? What if we wire up an electrical doorknob?_ There was a whole new level of crazy to the gone man and while he'd gotten away with it time and time again, Dave liked to remind him to be careful. "What if one day this gets you killed?"

He could very clearly hear Max reply. "Then at least I'll have lived life doing what I want. Fuck the rules man." After high school Dave gone on to university and Max stopped education, deciding to go out and do his crazy stunts. His last words to Dave were, "Hey dude, I'm going out to the desert in the east. Some shit's going down there and I want to see it." He didn't come back after that.

Dave didn't give up hope after his disappearance. And now that the two robots had come along and seemed to know something about what was going on in the desert, he wanted in on it. If anything, at least some closure to what happened to Max was good.

 _"_ _Oi Dave, where are you?"_ Dave snapped out of his trance as he heard heavy footsteps and Makina calling out to him.

"Oh- uh, I'm right here!" He quickly rubbed his face with his hands in an attempt to shake out the glazed look in his eyes.

From the trees came Makina, picking his way past thin, tangled roots and Freedom trailing behind obediently. _"There you are. I thought we lost you for a second. Humans like to do this thing where they run off in different directions and get lost. I should know. I worked with a whole bunch of them."_

A whole bunch? Dave perked up. Curiousity began to burn in his chest - he wanted to know about Makina. if he was going to be with the robot for awhile then he was going to get to know him. But still, a part of him knew that hidden behind the metal was some probably sick and dark story. Or maybe he was just an escaped robot.

"Tell me about you," Dave requested.

 _"_ _What?"_

"Tell me about you. If I'm gonna be stuck with you then… I might as well get to know you."

Makina and Freedom shared a look. Freedom shrugged, and Makina sighed, relenting to the request. _"Fine. But it's a damn long story."_


	7. Flight and Flee

The forest eventually thinned out into an expansive field, untouched by humans and left for the occasional wild animal to roam before moving on.

Makina thought it was better to stay out of sight of anyone until dark and the field was no place to do that.

He marvelled at the soft grass just beyond the thin barrier of trees. Behind him, Dave worked hard to weave and bend branches into a small shelter.

It was almost hypnotic, to watch Dave work. The way he twisted and manipulated thin strings of wood to form structures was amazing, as if he had been doing it for years.

Dave had no idea what he was doing.

He fumbled with the sticks and broke a lot of them in an attempt to twist them into a stiff shelter of some sort. Splinters littered his fingers and the ground around him and he hated it, but by some miracle, he managed to make something decent.

He mounted the wooden roof against two trees, branches holding branches and making a little hideout. There were still some holes in the makeshift roof, but it would hold up well enough.

"There. At least we'll have somewhere to sit if it starts to rain. How long do you plan to stay here?" Dave began to pick splinters out of his fingers carefully.

 _"_ _At least until dark or when everyone goes home. Then we head back to the factory."_ Makina was dead set on the plan though he hadn't considered many other factors.

"Okay sure, but what about the police hunting us? And how are we going to get back to the factory?" Dave tossed tiny bits of wood onto the ground next to him. "In case you forgot, my car got wrecked no thanks to you."

Makina stopped for a moment. Static began to fizz at the corners of his vision again as he remembered the car. Sparks of electricity buzzed at his fingertips. In his mind, one word flashed. _Guilt._

 _"_ _Right… sorry about that car. I guess we can steal someone else's even though they're going to be mad."_

Freedom noticed Makina acting weird and stepped up, his shaky hand clasping the Sniperbot's shoulder. _"Hey Mac, since when did you care about what others think?"_

Makina shrugged Freedom off.

Freedom wasn't going to let Makina off so easily. He was his friend, after all, and friends helped friends with their problems. He might have trashed a lot of files and lost a lot of knowledge, but he could very well detect that Makina was acting weird and that was not okay.

Makina kept shrugging Freedom off and Freedome kept persisting, constantly asking Makina to talk to him. Dave watched this with interest - never had he come across a robot that could feel. Technology was really advancing.

 _"_ _Come on Mac, you can trust me! I mean if you don't trust that scraggly maggot,"_ he gestured vaguely in Dave's direction, _"then we can go somewhere else."_

Makina clutched his arm and stared at the ground. _Stop. Stop pushing me. Stop it. Go away!_

 _"_ _Just talk to me Mac, I promise I-"_

Makina whipped around, fists clenched. _"Stop it Freedom! Just stop! I don't want to talk, I don't want your help, just drop it already!"_ His harsh voice rang clear through the woods, several birds taking to the skies in fear. His display had gone red and his body heating up. Several warning signs flashed around his sight.

Then, a cold silence fell between them. Even Dave had backed up and disappeared into the shelter he'd made.

 _"_ _What has gotten into you Mac?"_ Freedom asked. His voice was hushed and his back hunched.

Makina had so much to say. He wanted to tell Freedom everything. Ever since the whole fiasco in the city before the murder of Olivia Mann, and the installation of the processor, he had so much pent up frustration and anger. Maybe it'd have been better if he hadn't gone through with it.

He wanted to tell Freedom he was sorry, but he didn't realise what came out of his mouth until Freedom turned around and left.

 _"_ _Get out of here. Get out and don't come back. You've been of little help."_

Freedom went cold. _"I thought we were friends. But since this is how you want it maggot, then fine."_ He tried to snap a branch for measure, but it didn't budge. Quickly, he gathered himself and rushed off.

Makina went back to Dave.

"Hey, where's the short guy?" Dave's gaze followed Makina, who silently wandered into the shelter and sat down. The Sniperbot refused to say anything and went straight into idle mode. "Okay then."

Dave tried to take a nap to pass time but kept waking up every five minutes. After waking up for the seventh time, he decided it was better to walk around. So he got up and left Makina there, wandering through the thin forest and outside to survey the field. When he was bored, he went back to the shelter and began to count as many distinguishable types of plants around.

Dave finally managed to fall asleep after over an hour of counting plants but was rudely woken up half an hour later by Makina. The sun was quickly setting, the sky darkening into

 _"_ _Get up. We need to go now.'_

Dave yawned, making a poor attempt to stifle it. His jaws gaped wide and he quickly snapped them shut and blinked the tears away. "What- why? What's happening?"

 _"_ _We need to find Freedom. If anyone catches him, he'll spill our plan. I don't know why I even let him run off."_

Dave made a face. "And you only realise this now?" He brushed the loose dirt off his pants, snorting at the stubborn bits that had embedded themselves well into the fabric of his pants.

 _"_ _It doesn't matter what happened earlier. We just need to go now."_ He threw his hands up into the air, feeling himself get warm again. _No. Calm down. You do not need to black out now._ Hastening his pace, he headed straight for the open field while Dave begrudgingly trudged along behind.

* * *

The base was quiet. It wasn't the tense silence that came right after a lost battle, and Spy was glad for that. Instead, it was the silence brought by no one, broken only by the light clack of his ridiculously expensive shoes against hard, unpolished floor.

It was unsettling.

The first few days after everyone left, the quiet was relaxing and enjoyable. He could get drunk and sleep in late and when he woke up, he didn't have to bother with looking sharp.

It was very unlike him, but it felt good to be able to relax without the worry of others watching. It only felt good for the first few days.

The relaxing silence turned into a hollow echo. Spy suddenly became aware of how silent it was. No Scout's incessant chatter, no Soldier's arguing with Demo or something petty. No Pyro's mumbling and crackle of flames. No flipping of Heavy reading a magazine, no Medic and Engineer discussing something techy, no Sniper complaining about anything at all.

He had gotten so used to all of this that the sudden removal of all these little distractions in life was unsettling to say the least.

After attempting to ignore the pressing silence by drinking, reading, chain smoking, he finally decided to pack up and leave the base as well.

He was friends - no, acquaintances - with a couple of people from the New Mexico airport so bringing his knives were of no issue. A small bribe got him through but to be safe he brought only his custom made pure ceramic knife.

At the airport, peak hour had arrived. Many people were purchasing last minute tickets or checking in, hurrying by and ignoring Spy. The mercenary felt oddly out of place among them but managed to keep his cool.

The young man at the counter seemed to straighten up when Spy got to the front of the counter, the distaste for pushy, last-minute passengers in his eyes disappearing. _Classic, hoping for a tip,_ Spy thought.

Spy quickly took the furthest end seat, first class, away from everyone else. He paid in hard cash, which surprised the counter boy. Hesitating for a second, Spy passed the kid another ten-dollar bill. Seeing his huge grin at the tip, Spy couldn't help but offer a reluctant smile in return. The counter boy looked a lot like the old Scout.

As he walked to the departure hall, he found himself reaching into his jacket and brushing his fingers against the ceramic knife with the chain and a single dog tag wrapped around it. He could feel the engravings beyond his glove with the old Scout's name.

 _Air France flight 315 is now available for boarding to First class and Business class passengers._

 _315, what a familiar number._ Spy carefully rubbed his finger against the hilt of the knife before tucking it back into his jacket, making a poor attempt to shove aside memories of Gray's broken office with it.

 _Glass all over the floor. Outside, Demoman and Medibot were fighting off surges of robots. Pyro was picking himself up off the floor, hands still alight with dancing flame. Olivia Mann had disappeared with the pistol and Scout's blue shirt was quickly turning red._

 _He was struggling for breath, fear locked in his massive pools for eyes. Spy yelled for Medic and Medibot came in. Medibot couldn't save him. He had no medigun. Spy was furious._

 _Scout turned his head away for Spy's sake as he took his last breath. Spy was ready to break down. He knew Scout's mother had 7 other sons but none were his. His only kin… the one thing he took pride in his life despite all his scars..._

The thunder only audible to him died down after he had taken his seat. He blinked, not remembering how or when he had managed to get to his seat. When offered wine, he went for a good glass of Dom Perignon. Anything to drown out the memories.

The stewardess could notice Spy looking troubled, but chose to avoid asking. It wasn't her business right? When serving him the glass of wine, she offered a comforting smile.

"Oh, _merci."_ He allowed himself only a quick glance up at her, noticing her concerned smile. She was beautiful, to say the least. Her hair was neatly bunned up, face flawless and features not covered up, but accentuated by her makeup. He noticed she had a light dusting of freckles, which he thought was quite beautiful.

"My pleasure, sir." She quickly gathered herself and continued on her rounds, tending to the rest of the passengers in the cabin.

As he took sips from the crystal glass, he made to survey the rest of the passengers and the entire cabin, in case anything went pear-shaped and he needed out. It wasn't something he wanted to do, just habit. Information derived from just looking at others was sifted out and analysed. Most importantly, he needed to know of anyone was a threat. To him, specifically.

The man all the way on the opposite side of the aisle was dressed in a typical black suit, white undershirt and red tie. He looked relaxed, sinking into his seat and enjoying his champagne. Judging from the suit and the colour of his wine, he wasn't too rich - just enough to splurge on a long trip and look good, but it was likely after paying for all that he would have to go with bread for breakfast for awhile. He looked like a higher-end office worker, maybe a supervisor. Harmless, say for maybe a loud mouth when it came to arguing.

In the middle aisle near the front was a lady in a simple and elegant white dress. Her face wasn't noticeable from where Spy sat, but she looked richer than the guy on the other side of the plane. Her dress was silk, finely made, perhaps even hand-sewn by experts. The dress was fairly tight-fitting but didn't reveal anything unimpressive. No weapons on her figure. Harmless.

Somewhere near the front when he had entered was a large businessman. CEO of a company that wasn't here nor there. Fat and jolly, very kind to the stewardesses who served him. He could have hidden a weapon under his thick jacket but it was unlikely. He wasn't competitive in any sense. Harmless.

The two air stewardesses who served the cabin were both harmless too.

Spy sank back into his seat, finally able to relax when he knew the risk of getting attacked and having to bring out his weapon was low. The plane was making its ascent, marking the start of a long, twelve hour flight.

The pretty stewardess returned. "Hello sir, perhaps I may interest you some newspapers?"

Spy hadn't been catching up on recent news. Often he got his news from people like Engineer, Sniper and Medic. Anything they didn't mention was usually of irrelevance.

"Thank you, if you have a French paper I'd love to have that."

The stewardess nodded and headed to the back of the cabin to collect the papers. She returned quickly to drop off the newspaper before hurrying off to serve the other 3 passengers in the cabin.

Spy flipped casually through the paper, eyes browsing headlines mostly with disinterest until he got to the International news. A very small article in the corner began with a picture for a familiar robot looting corpses before fleeing. Upon closer inspection, he recognised it as Makina. The article itself was vague, few details being released except for the number of fatalities and where Makina was last seen.

"Merde… of course he gets into trouble," He mumbled to himself. He would have to catch up on that after landing, when he could call someone. For the next 12 hours, he'd allow himself to relax and enjoy himself for once.


	8. Nuts n' Bolts

**A/N. I'm really sorry for the poor chapter but the writer's block hit me hard and I don't feel like this chapter is going to progress the longer I keep it so I'm just going to give this to you and hopefully things will pick up later.**

Dave and Makina had gone on a wild goose chase after Freedom all throughout the suburbs. With no leads except a blinking dot on a radar that always seem to scurry off whenever they reached it's latest position, the two were getting worn out.

They found themselves in a mini mart, owned by a little old lady who didn't think twice about Makina being around. Dave was browsing the coolers for a drink. "Let's face it bud, he's gone," Dave huffed.

 _"_ _He can't be. He's not smart enough to hide for too long."_ The Sniperbot was definitely frustrated, his cooling fans desperately whirring in an attempt to cool him down. Dave advised he stick his head into the ice cream box but he refused.

"Well, clearly he is smart enough. We've been chasing that damn robot for hours." He gave the lady at the counter some coins for the bottled of soda in his hand.

They were ready to leave and continue on their hunt, when a crackly voice piped up.

"Ohhh you boys looking for a robot?" The counter lady asked. "This tall fella came in earlier. Looked a lot like you lad." She pointed to Makina. "But he had a bucket on his head."

Immediately Makina was at the counter. The lady didn't think he was all too threatening. Then again, a blurry blob could only get so intimidating. _"He was here? Where did he go?"_

"You asking me boy, I don't know. He rushed in here as if he were looking for something. Looked a right rushed. Kids these days don't know how to slow down."

 _"_ _Did he take anything?"_ Makina was getting annoyed. This lady wasn't giving him answers.

"Oh no. I'd have called the cops if he stole anything. He came in asking where he could find some way to get out of here. I don't know where he wants to go, so I tell 'em, go to the airport and get a plane."

Airport. He'd definitely get caught and spill his location to the cops. Makina grabbed Dave and rushed out, the man quickly yelling a 'thank you' back before being yanked out of the store.

When they were outside, Makina opened his palm to Dave. _"Give me your phone."_

Dave warily handed the phone over like he was guilty of something, but the small action went right over Makina's head. The robot flipped open the phone, taking a moment to remember what he was calling for.

Many a time people in the base made calls to Miss Pauling for a variety of reasons. New weapons. Stuff wasn't working. Complaints. Questions. Reports. The phone in both bases made beeping noises in different tones in correspondence to the number pressed.

He quickly ran through the little "jingle" in his head, picturing where each button should be, before pressing the same number into the phone. He didn't memorise the number itself - just the jingle.

* * *

The phone rang once. Twice. Miss Pauling passed it several times, huge stacks of papers and folders in her hands. There was no time to answer phone calls, and seeing as how all of them mercenaries were on holiday, she deemed the phone call unimportant.

Eventually it stopped ringing and still Miss Pauling did not bother. The assistant in purple sat down at her cluttered desk, shoving papers aside to make space for a massive folder filled with orders for new weapons and hats from Mann Co.

She has to write out all her orders - how many, what she wanted, and still she had to budget everything, a stressed out calculator by her side. She was filing orders for many, many Mann Co. creates filled with hats and weapons and others. Then she also had to order fresh weapons because the mercenaries were complaining not too long ago about theirs turning old and faulty.

And of course, she needed to keep the supply of Unusuals going. Some had disappeared with the crates they came in - or rather, a lot had disappeared when the mercenaries decided they weren't ready to open 600 crates and burnt them all. So she had to order them. What hat, what effects. She used to let Saxton Hale himself pick out Unusuals himself to send over, but she had ended up with 25 Nuts n' Bolts Trophy Belts.

The phone rang again. She did her best to try and ignore it, but it's persistent ringing eventually had her putting the pen down and picking the phone up.

She kept quiet at first, waiting for whoever it was to speak first.

 _"_ _Hello, Miss Pauling? Makina here."_

Trying to focus on whatever the Sniperbot had to say and also on writing down her orders, though she found Makina's words slipping by as she scribbled down hats.

"What- oh, sorry, could you repeat that?" She asked. Temporarily pulling herself away from work, she stared into blank space, fingers itching to get on with it.

 _"_ _So I ran into another bot from the factory and he's run off. To the airport, I assume,"_ He waited for any response, but Miss Pauling stayed deathly silent. _"We are probably going to need a plane once we find out where he's gone."_

There was an uncomfortably long silence on the phone, to the point Makina thought he might have been talking to no one at all. _"Uh, are you-"_

"Yes, I'm here. I'm just trying to wrap my head around what you just said," Immediately, she reached for crumpled piece of scrap paper and her pen. "So let me get this straight. There was another robot who somehow got away and this robot isn't legally protected under Mann Co and Team Fortress Industries?"

Makina made hums that sounded like affirmations. "Right. And you want me to fly you to wherever he's going? What's so concerning about this robot?"

 _"_ _He will spill everything. Freedom isn't very good at keeping secrets."_

"Right…" Miss Pauling clicked her tongue. "I'll see what I can do. If you can let me know where he's going by eight tonight, I can probably get you a plane by midnight." She did not need nor appreciate the extra job to do, but Makina was signed under Mann Co and the Administrator hated losing anything under her - even if it was a robot that came from Gray Industries.

"I'll call you back on this number." She immediately hung up before Makina could say anything else. Looking from the crumpled note with information and the pile of orders to fill, she tucked the note in her pocket. Until she was given information on where Freedom was going, she could not help Makina.

And so it was back to work. There were orders to be filed.


	9. Destination: CDG Airport

**A/N. Thanks for all the follows and favourites! I realise I have not been saying much as the writer but I want y'all to know I love each and every one of you. Reviews always appreciated! Also I apologise if I get locations severely wrong. I hope Google Maps is accurate enough.**

There was a whole lot going on in Makina's head. On his display, there were little boxes filled with crucial information he had neglected ever since his escape from Gray. Current internal temperature, battery percentage, a small map to the corner, time, location, radar, and basic information about his model. There would always be a reminder of his serial number, just hovering near the corner on his heads-up display.

A constant reminder that he was nothing but a killing machine. But beyond that, was another little box that stated his current emotion in case it was new and he couldn't name it. Medibot had installed it for him to keep track of things.

Besides that, there were little red dots on his map which he had enlarged. He'd set those little markers to remind himself of where he was going, since the map had no words or anything.

He and Dave walked along a street, accompanied by few cars that hurried off to their destinations, no one paying attention to the oddities except for the occasional glance or mutter of disapproval.

Dave's head remained bowed, eyes sifting through a map on his phone. "The airport's awfully fair, Mac. Maybe we should…" He raised his head and hurried to the side of the road, frantically waving his hand.

 _"_ _What are you-"_ A too-bright yellow taxi pulled up on the curb, driven by what seemed like an old man with a kind smile on his face.

Pulling the door open, Dave and Makina slid into the cab. Very slowly, almost like he couldn't, the old driver turned around. "Where'd you lads like to go today?" He asked. His voice was creaky in a way that unsettled both passengers. There was almost a feeling like acid bubbling within Makina - something that told him something was off. _Gut feeling,_ he remembered someone telling him once. But he didn't have a gut at all.

"The airport please," Dave said. He sank back into his seat, still a little tense, as Makina noticed. Dave wasn't comfortable around this driver either and everyone in the car knew about it.

The old man drove in silence for the first five minutes, before his creaky voice pierced uncomfortable silence. "So… you boys ever heard of the grey east?"

The two passengers shared a look. "Grey… east?"

The driver laughed. "Oh… lads these days don't even know what's happening around them." He launched into a long ramble about how the youths didn't know a thing and were practically useless, all the way until they were near the airport.

"…those robots killed a lot of people. And guess what? The army didn't do a thing. They just ran off and let the Master storm the area."

 _"_ _Wait, the Master?"_ It occurred to Makina that the old man probably wasn't a man at all. _"Who is that?"_

The old man went awfully silent. With an almost mechanical movement, he slowly turned his head to glance at his passengers. "It's your stop," he growled.

Makina's fingers went cold. This wasn't a man at all, it was a-

"It's your stop," He repeated again. Makina stayed still for a second more, giving the man a quick scan before nudging Dave out and following him.

Dave frowned, catching the small nod Makina gave. The two of them stood still, the yellow taxi not moving, until the street went clear of people.

In a frenzied second, the car sped up and tried to swerve off, Makina pulling out the pistol and firing through the back window. Glass shattered, and immediately the car screeched and stopped.

In the driver's seat, the old man jerked and sparked, before the disguise fizzled away and revealed a Spybot. Behind him, Dave whistled. "You guys get all the good technology."

 _"_ _If this is the Spybot… then the body is somewhere. Spybots have to kill someone to get the DNA to disguise as them,"_ The Sniperbot muttered. He scrambled to the boot and smashed it open, sighing in dismay at the sight of the old man poorly stuffed into the boot. _"Great."_

People were starting to come back to the street, wandering around the car and peering inside. Chatter and worried calls began to rise, and while everyone was distracted, the two scurried away.

The airport was hardly anything fancy or interesting. Upon entering, they were greeted with a plain old building that just had the necessities - blocky pillars, and signs. To the left was departure, and to the right was arrivals. To head towards departure made sense - someone there had to know where a twitchy robot with a helmet went.

Just outside the departure hall were a row of counters with airlines over them. Indistinguishable to Makina, he rushed to the first counter, where the lady froze for a second before slowly reaching for the phone. He lunged forward, grabbing her hand. _"Do not call the police,"_ he warned. _"I just need to know if you've seen a robot who's shorter than me and has a helmet."_

The lady's lips trembled a little before wildly shaking her head. Frustrated, Makina pulled out his pistol. _"Dave. Ask around."_ Before he let go of the woman, he gripped her hand tighter. " _Do not call the police."_

The same thing happened until one personal finally managed to say something. "H-h-he took Air France f-flight 673… to Charles de G-Gaulle airport in… Paris."

Dave quickly typed down everything on his phone. Somewhere behind him, he could hear Makina rummaging through things. He sincerely hoped no one managed to sneak a call to the police. "What's the arrival time?"

"It-it's expected to arrive at… 10.44AM, central European time."

Quickly reviewing the information on his phone, he nodded. "Thanks. I'll just… get my friend out now."

Outside, there were sirens wailing already, red and blue light flashing through the glassy doors and the police crouching behind the open doors of their cars, firearms pointed at the door. One of them gave a little gesture with his hand, and six heavily armoured men rushed into the building with their rifles close.

Dave was jogging out of the departure hall, which was eerily empty, when he caught a glimpse of the SWAT team searching the place. Knowing that was a bad thing despite his mostly innocent self, he turned and fled, shoving Makina out of the hallway.

 _"_ _What is your problem?"_ Making hissed. Dave quickly put a finger to his lips.

"The SWAT team is roaming around. Someone called the cops while we were asking for information." _Well, when I was asking for information. You were ready to throw something._ His mouth clicked shut before he could add in that last thought.

Makina would have pursed his lips if he could - or if he had lips to begin with. _"Alright. What does this SWAT team do?"_ In his time around a bunch of people who were strongly inclined to fighting and possibly the military, he had never heard of this 'SWAT'. Were they of that much concern.

Dave was constantly checking behind him like a Sniper looking for Spies while he tried to find how to explain the SWAT team in a simple and understandable way. "They're basically a group of people who are really good at killing things. And I don't think getting killed is something on either of our plates."

The Sniperbot nodded. He wanted to say how they were just trained to fight, while he was _programmed_ to do it. Ever since the day he was made, his purpose was to kill. Some SWAT team or whatever shouldn't have been a problem. But yet, he was smart enough not to underestimate humans. Dave had proven to be smarter than expected already.

Looking down at the single pistol on him, he quickly ran through a map of the place he'd scanned on the way to their current position. _"Okay. I don't know if you're familiar with a thing we call 'flank routes' but they're basically an alternative path we can take to flank the enemy. If this map is accurate, then there should be a flank route via,"_ he pushed the map window to the side and pointed towards a door with a plaque that read _Janitor Closet_ , " _that door."_

The sound of footsteps got uncomfortably close. "Okay just- whatever. Let's just go before one of us gets shot."

Upon leaving their little corner, they began to run, right into view of the armed militants. One of them yelled something that was inaudible to Dave, his heart thundering, and bullets began to trail them.

In an attempt to make sure Dave did not get hurt, Making ran in front of him, shielding him till they managed to open the door and rush in. Loud footsteps followed, and they locked the door.

 _"_ _Move it!"_ Makina shoved Dave along to the other side of the dim room filled with schedules and small personal belongings. From the table, Makina grabbed a small and rather old looking phone. It beeped in mechanical response to let Makina know it was a functional phone.

Since the main doors were blocked by the police, Makina took to smashing through the glass panels at the side of a cafe. Behind them, bullets chased.

He fumbled with the phone, his metal fingers not offering much grip but managed to punch in Ms Pauling's desk number by memory. His legs worked tirelessly in keeping him away from those behind, but Dave was tiring out fast. The robot slowed down a bit to grab Dave's arm and yank him along. If need be, he was willing to carry the man.

Putting the phone to his ear, he willed Ms Pauling to pick up. As soon as he heard a little click, he began to fire off his words.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Makina. Slow down. Repeat all that again." The voice on the phone instructed.

 _"_ _We're fleeing from the airport. Now. This SWAT team is chasing us and I'm pretty sure unless they're idiots, they've called for backup."_ He pulled up a window of his current location. Several red dots moved along other streets ahead of him. " _We'll be cornered in no more than five minutes."_

There was a short silence on the phone, then Ms Pauling made an affirmative noise. _"_ Okay. Yeah. I just need your location."

" _We're coming up on some shop. 35.0711 degrees north, negative 106.6195 degrees west. About five minutes."_ It was a cemetery. How nice.

Ms Pauling made another grunt, "Okay. I'll be there. Just hang on."

The five minutes seemed agonising. While the SWAT team chasing them were gone, the little red dots on Makina's map were closing in too quickly for comfort.

When they got the the edge of the cemetery, there was no one but the faint roar of cars zooming in. Quickly turning to Dave, he apologised. _"Sorry for this. Play along."_ That was all the warning Dave got before Makina grabbed him in a headlock, pressing the pistol to his temple. He waited, Dave waited, but no one came. The roar of a car got louder and louder, a black car zooming in. It jerked and screeched in front of them, Ms Pauling rolling down the window as much as possible - which wasn't much at all.

"Get in. I broke past a barrier and there are people chasing me."

As Makina scrambled into the car, police cars began to surround them. The first car that stopped opened, and a police officer opened fire.

Before Dave could get in, a bullet pierced his upper arm, a flash of searing pain following. Nonetheless, he got into the car and slammed the incredibly heavy door shut, hissing as he clutched the bleeding wound.

Ms Pauling was not playing around. "Hold still guys. This is going to be rough." She slammed on the accelerator and smashed right through thin barriers that were just forming. Whether she rolled over some people, she chose to ignore. "We'll head to the nearest private airport. Bidwell is flying - I'm sure you know Bidwell," she nodded to Makina, "you'll have to give him the location of wherever your friend went."

She became suddenly aware and uncomfortable of Dave. Instinctively, her hand went to the holster on her hip where she always stored a spare pistol. Makina noticed the little movement and growled. _"He's nice. Don't take out the gun."_

Dave squirmed uncomfortable, ripping off a part of his shirt to bandage the wound. Ms Pauling glanced back quickly. "There's bandages somewhere. I stole this car from the president." She had broken off all communications in the car, having cut the wires to every phone and smashed the GPS in.

"You stole this. From the President," Dave repeated. "Isn't that kinda impossible?"

Ms Pauling smirked. "We have people who do things for us. Friendships, you might say." The government had no idea that Mann Co was home to nine of the world's deadliest mercenaries. Outlaws, criminals, serial killers, assassins, psychopaths - they were just civilians in the eyes of the government. To them, Mann Co was just a hat making company and Team Fortress Industries was non existent. The Administrator had done a fantastic job in ensuring that no one knew about the area or the mercenaries. Years of hacking, clearing records, corrupting files and hiring people had paid off well.

"Anyway," Ms Pauling continued, "when we get there I'll call Bidwell in and he'll fly you to wherever you need. Don't expect him to follow you when you get there though. He's supposed to be with Saxton Hale right now."

The drive to the airport was tense. They were sure the government and military was on high alert for them now, though if Ms Pauling's friends in the government could be trusted, they'd keep off her tail for now. When they were done with the Cadillac One, she'd have to hose it down completely and destroy all evidence.

The private airport was situated in a barren and dry land; a simple hangar waiting. Before they reached, the purple lady sent out a notice to Hale's aide. When the car slowed to a stop, a plain, white plane was already waiting.

"Good luck. And if anyone asks or talks about the car, say nothing. I am probably going to destroy this and have a new one made." Miss Pauling bid them good luck and not to get into too much trouble, before leaving the two in the hands of Bidwell, who was not too pleased with it. Still, he welcomed the two on board, remembering Makina very vividly from their last meeting in the city, where he had to talk to a very angry woman about lockdown because she would not talk to anyone else.

"Please don't trash this plane, or Mr Hale is going to notice how much money I'm taking out. Not that he would care… but still. It's too troublesome to get a new plane." He noticed the sloppy bandages Dave had made from shreds of his shirt that were stained red. He went to the front of the plane and returned with a small first aid kit. "Here." He gave Makina a glance. "Where to?"

"Charles de Gaulle airport. The plane should have landed there."

Bidwell disappeared one more to pilot the plane while Dave patched up his arm before sinking deep into his chair. "Y'know what, wake me up when we're there," he mumbled. Two minutes into closing his eyes, Dave was asleep.

 _Wake me up when I'm dead._ Makina jerked at the voice returning. Wildly, he looked around, but there was no one. Unsettled now, he took to the pilot cabin where Bidwell was. Something bubbled like acid inside him.

 _"_ _Do you mind if I hang around here?"_ He asked. Bidwell turned to look at him, not able to detect anything off.

"Oh no, feel free to stay."

 _"_ _Thanks."_

* * *

After landing in the airport, Freedom had taken off. There was a certain pull to this house he was in. The old lady who owned the place had been nice enough to let him into her house. She didn't speak English much, just enough to be able to offer him water - not that he needed it. The rest of their one-sided conversations were in French or robotic hums.

With an untouched, cold glass of water in his hands, Freedom had taken to venturing the house. The woman didn't seem to mind and so he wandered, looking at everything with a childlike curiousity. Under the old television sat a dusty photo in a worn, wooden frame. The picture was a boy, no older than 18, hugging some older woman. He frowned. Something about the picture was calling to him, but when the feeling went away, he put it back, dismissing any ideas.

He sat down on the ragged but nonetheless plush couch, staring at the old woman. She took the single seat off to the side and closed her eyes. Then softly, she began to hum a tune.

The house quietened, all sounds gone except for the humming of the old woman. Freedom wondered if he could get used to this life, maybe pick up their language. Based on the reactions of the people he'd run into, the French didn't seem to know what went on with the robots back in New Mexico and didn't think of them much.

But that was fine with Freedom.


	10. Carrion

**A/N. I know, it's been really long and I haven't been updating. I'm a bad person. Also, I know magpies don't really like collecting shiny things, but I like playing on that. I think that's enough of a hint for what's coming.**

The flight had taken longer than expected. Bidwell did his best to make the ride as smooth as possible, but Makina could not get much idle time as he wished he could have.

Instead of landing at the Charles de Gaulle airport itself and being bombarded with questions, Bidwell made a redirection to an abandoned private airport not too far off. Someone was bound to notice the illegal activity, but he was certain he could drop the two robots off and take off before being noticed.

"You're both free to go." He just lightly touched Makina to get the bot up and going. "I need to fly off soon. The plane shouldn't be here."

Makina's joints creaked as he got up after sitting for so long. If they continued to creak, he'd just oil them again later. He said nothing, but offered a nod of thanks to Bidwell before heading out of the cockpit.

Medibot was waiting patiently next to Dave, the man still curled up in his seat. _"Wake him up. We have to go."_ He didn't wait up for either of them, cranking open the door and heading out.

There was a certain, very odd sluggish-ness to him. His feet dragged more on the ground, feeling like heavy lead blocks were tied to his legs. It was an odd sensation, seeing as how his batteries did not need charging yet.

Medibot noticed the sluggishness in his friend. _"Herr Makina, are you alright?"_

His eyes were too focused on nothing, drifting around lazily. It took him awhile to register that Medibot had said something. _"Oh. What?"_ He looked up from where he was gazing - nothing more than the pavement. _"I'm fine. Just…"_ He searched for the word. _"Tired."_

He had never used the word to describe himself before. Robots shouldn't have to know what being tired was like.

 _"_ _Is it your batteries?"_ Medibot pressed. Batteries were easy enough to change if they had the right ones.

 _"_ _No. My batteries are fine. It's… something else."_ Before Medibot could say anything, he interrupted. _"Let's just get somewhere before we do anything."_

The walk into town was not too long. By following the empty side road, they reached the town near the main airport in no time. The setting sun cast a warm, golden glow over the town, illuminating all it's residents. Soon, it would be dark out.

They wandered deep into town, streets lit only by pale lamps that shone harsh, white light onto cold concrete. Bars began to get noisy, as people took time off to get drunk. To avoid being spotted, the two went to the alleyways behind buildings.

They didn't think much of making sharp turns down other alleys, until they ran into a gang situated at the end of the path they were taking.

The gang comprised of less than eight guys, all of which were marked with tattoos, piercings, and the like. Some of them were sitting on posts and old boxes that had been discarded by the shops around them, drinking their night away. Others smoked and laughed.

What got Makina's attention was the black and white bird two of them had. The bird struggled to get out of the grip of the boys, but it had been wrapped in tape, pinning its wings down. "You wanna fly, birdie?" He tossed the taped bird into the air. "Then fly!" It landed on the ground with a soft thump, calling out in desperation. The guys roared in laughter, picking up the frightened bird again.

Medibot looked up, hearing the bird's distressed calls. He rolled forward, not caring if he had to forcefully take the bird.

 _"_ _Doc, wait-"_

 _"_ _Ahh, excuse me,"_ Medibot greeted as he approached. _"I notice you have a common magpie. Please release it. Birds aren't meant to have zheir vings tied down like zhat"_

The two guys turned their attention from the bird to Medibot. The biggest one with the most piercings, seeming like the leader, snapped his fingers. All eight guys stopped whatever they were doing, hopping down from their seats to join their leader.

"This your bird?" The leader asked, waving the bird in front of him. When it called out, the leader flicked it's head. It flinched, looking to Medibot for help.

If he could frown, he would have. _"Vell, no. But vhat you are doing is wrong. Birds are meant to fly, not sit zhere for your entertainment. I ask again. Please release zhe bird."_

One of the guys whispered to the leader. "Ah, wait. You know what's funny? You're robots. We don't take kindly to robots."

Makina was ready to step in, but he could tell Medibot was ready to punch the sucker. _"And vhy is zhat?"_

"One of our boys died some years ago. News has it that robots went rampant and started murdering things. Bots like you."

Makina was very interested in knowing about the guy who got killed, but Medibot wasn't going to let them leave until he got the bird. _"Vell, zhat is completely unrelated to vhat I am here for. Give zhe bird."_

The guy holding the bird tossed it behind them effortlessly. It shrieked in distress. Medibot curled his fingers and gave him a good, hard punch.

The advantage of being a robot was being able to hit as hard as he wanted without feeling any pain in his hand. The leader went down on the ground. For a split second there was total silence, including the magpie, as the gang waited for their leader to get up, before utter chaos began.

Half of the remaining guys went for Medibot and the other half went for Makina. Being a doctor, Medibot knew how to disarm a man and knock them out without having to kill them. He was swift, hitting pressure points hard and fast and dodging whatever he could. He twisted the arm of the one guy who rushed him from afar until he screamed and begged to be released.

"You broke my arm you bastard!" He shrieked.

 _"_ _I am a doctor. I know how to bruise arms. It's not broken, stop complaining."_ The man's yells quietened into pained whimpers.

Makina was a little less kind in dealing with the guys who rushed him. He grabbed the one clinging to his back and flipped him over, smashing his back into the ground and leaving him groaning. He was stepping on someone else and knew he was not light at all. The third one had his head rammed into a wall, leaving trails of blood on the concrete as the man slid down, unconscious.

Medibot lunged for the bird before anyone could accidentally step on it. _"Zhere, zhere. Medibot's got you."_ The magpie remained silent as Medibot rolled a little further away from the chaos, slowly picking off the tape as carefully as he could. Behind him, Makina was shoving the guys into a corner and covering them with boxes so no one would notice. The thrill of the fight sent shivers through him.

He grabbed the last guy still conscious by the collar. _"Who is the guy who died?"_

The man refused to say anything. Frustrated, Makina delivered another punch, not hard enough to knock him out. _"Who is he?"_ He demanded again. The guy coughed out blood.

"I… don't know…" Makina punched him again. His head lolled to the side and he didn't respond again. He growled in frustration, standing up. Everything they did was a dead end, just like the alleyway.

Medibot had gotten most of the tape off the magpie except for small bits of glue, but one wing drooped lower than the other. It didn't fly off either, simply sitting in his hand which had turned warm from the bird. _"Ah, I see. Herr Makina, vhere are ve going?"_ He asked.

The Sniperbot was peering out from the alley and onto the main street. _"We keep moving."_

 _"_ _But Carrion needs to be bathed."_

 _"_ _Carrion? Don't tell me you named the bir- and you did."_

Makina was not surprised to see Medibot still holding the magpie in his hands. Seeing as the doctor had named the bird, it didn't seem like there wad any way to convince him not to bring the bird along. He sighed. _"Fine. We can find an abandoned building with a sink."_

Medibot would have grinned is he could. He knew the BLU Medic - what was his name again? Horst, that's right - He knew he had a cat, so why not he have a bird himself? He was hoping when Carrion could fly, he wouldn't leave, but that was for Carrion to decide.

The magpie stayed silent throughout the wander around town to find an abandoned or closed shop they could sneak into. After some wandering, they noticed a shop that looked ready to close. It was a small convenience store. The CLOSED sign had been put up for some time now, but the owner was still in.

 _"_ _I have to say, Doc,"_ Makina commented as he stared out into the dimly lit street, waiting for the owner of the store to leave, _"you throw a great punch."_

 _"_ _Zhank you. All bots can do it, but ve just tend to forget."_ He looked down from time to time to make sure the magpie wasn't slipping off his smooth hand. From time to time it would look up at Medibot with its beady, shining eyes, and try to pick as his shiny hand.

After fifteen more minutes of waiting, the clerk finally left the store. Only when he disappeared down the street did the two bots leave their hiding spot.

Lock picking was something Makina had picked up way back then when Gray Mann was still alive. The store was definitely set up with an alarm, so breaking the lock was not a solution.

 _"_ _Do you have a pin or something?"_ Makia asked, peering into the hole. He could scan any lock and know how to pick it well, but he needed a pin or a hair clip. Of course, neither of them would have a hair clip since they didn't have hair.

Medibot didn't have pockets to check in. _"No. Sorry."_ Makina sighed and continued to stare into the lock, hoping he could open it some other way.

Carrion began to trill, raising its head and looking ver interested at something. It leaned over his hand, trilling at something shining under the lamppost. When Medibot approached, it found it was a paper clip. _"Ah! Vell vhat do ve have here?"_ He picked it up, opening the clip.

Makina had resulted to trying to break open the lock without triggering any alarms, but wasn't having success with opening the lock.

 _"_ _Carrion found you somezhing, Herr._ " Medibot passed the opened paperclip to him, much to his delight.

With ease, he picked open the lock and the shutter opened. The inside was filled with aisle after aisle of food, toiletries, drinks, and other things Makina did not understand why anyone would ever need. As Medibot headed straight for the bathroom, Makina closed the shutter again and decided to take a gander through the aisle.

Hand cream? Why would anyone ever need hand cream? What did it do? He put the small container back on the shelf and moved on. The next few aisle were chock full of instant noodles. He knew what that was. Back on the base, the cupboards were full of them. Once, he had opened a cupboard and out came stacks of stacks of these packets.

Medibot went straight for the bathroom. There were two at the hallway, one with a pink interior and one with blue. Deciding Carrion might like pink more, he went inside. He placed Carrion on the sink counter.

The magpie called after him as he left to get supplies to splinter the bird's wing. He came back not too long later, having brought back gauze and tape. He hid the tape, in case Carrion decided he was going nowhere near tape.

For the most part Carrion was quiet, letting Medibot do his work, only complaining when he was put on his back to secure the gauze. _"Zhere, you're good as new. Of course, you can't fly yet but you vill in two to four weeks, ja? I'm sure you don't really understand me but, ah… zhis is a little awkward. Come on."_ He trailed off when Carrion only responded with a tilt of the head. Scooping the bird up again, he headed out of the bathroom.

Makina had torn open some packets of many things out of curiousity, and was now fiddling with a packet of Q-tips. _"Hey Doc, do you know what this is?"_

 _"_ _Ah, no. Humans are weird."_

He set Carrion down on the cashier counter. _"Vait here. Let me find you food."_ Magpies ate both plant and animal matter, but Medibot could not find any animal matter that looked in the least bit appetising. The freezers had pork and beef cutlets, but they looked so awfully red and God knew how long they had been there.

He found himself at a shelf with packets of wild berries. He turned on his scanner and began to dig around for the freshest packet of raspberries to take back.

Carrion was almost tempted to go find what was taking Medibot so long, when the doctor returned with a small plastic box of raspberries.

Makina watch with half-interest as Carrion started to tear the berries apart. _"I'm guessing this is our new companion?"_

Medibot watched Carrion with great interest. _"Only until he decides to fly off. I mean, if you vant no part of it I am villing to take care of him myself."_

 _"_ _How do you know it's a male?"_ Makina idly asked. He put his legs on the counter and leaned back in the chair.

 _"_ _Zhat's actually quite easy to tell, Herr."_ He pointed to a white patch on the back of the bird's neck. _"Female hoods are much grayer. Zhis is very white, so he is a male."_

 _"_ _Have you studied birds before?"_

 _"_ _Oh, all zhe time. Before I vas assigned to you, I took every moment off I had to go watch birds. Zhere veren't zhat many around the facility, but since zhe last time ve vere running around, I take the nights off to watch birds as vell."_

He lightly stroked Carrion's head as the bird decided he was done tearing and eating raspberries. _"I alvays wanted a bird."_

For the first time in a very long time, Makina chuckled. A genuine one. _"I guess you got what you wanted."_ He shifted his foot to touch Carrion. _"He's quite cute."_

Medibot stayed where he was, watching Carrion do his thing until he went idle. All the same, Makina shut off too for the night.

* * *

Freedom had spent the last few days helping the old lady he was staying with, and he had picked up a little French as well.

"Veux-tu du café?" The old lady asked.

Freedom looked up. He was still studying the photo of the boy from earlier, trying to figure out what about him seemed so familiar. In shaky French, he managed a _"Non… merci."_

She shrugged, settling down in her cushioned chair that was a little tattered from years of use and abuse. Curiously, she watched Freedom stare so intently at the picture. "Y at-il quelque chose sur cette photo?"

 _"_ _Non._ __ _Il est… familiar."_

"C'est mon petit-fils. Je ne l'ai pas vu depuis un moment."

"Qu'est-il arrivé?"

"Je ne sais pas. Quelque chose sur les robots."

 _"_ _Robots, huh?"_ He muttered to himself. The familiarity he could not put a finger on was like an itch that could not be scratched. It was frustrating, to say the least. He put the photo back. It was a mystery that could only be solved another time.

He left the old lady a note that he was going out. Something to clear his mind, and maybe he'd go back and ponder over the photo more later.

He walked wherever his legs would carry him. Eventually it took him to the stores. He stared at the ground as he walked, not noticing his surroundings until he bumped into someone.

"Watch it, man!" The man hissed. Freedom immediately looked up, coming face to face with who he immediately recognised as a Scout.

Both of them screamed, Scout pulling out his pistol.

 _"_ _Don't hurt me!"_ Freedom yelled. _"I'm harmless, I swear!"_ Makina had uploaded pictures of every RED and BLU mercenary to a folder he thought was private in the cloud, but Freedom had access. This was the RED Scout he was staring at.

"I thought I killed all of you dime-a-dozen bastards already."

People were staring for sure, a wide circle having formed after Scout pulled out the weapon. _"Look man! I'm friends with Makina! The Sniperbot! You know him, right?"_

Scout narrowed his eyes in suspicion, pulling out his phone. He lowered the gun and pocketed it again, keeping on wary eye on Freedom. If there was anyone he could verify with, it was two idiots on holiday.

* * *

"Oi, pick up the phone!" Axel called. He was sitting on the floor of Horst's house, playing with the doctor's two cats. Horst grumbled, but begrudgingly picked it up anyway.

"Hallo?"

 _"_ _Hey uh- wait. You're not Pyro."_ The voice crackled.

Horst glanced to his friend on the floor, trying to entertain both cats at once. "No, but I can pass zhe phone to him."

 _"_ _Yeah, you do that."_

"Axel, zhe phone is for you." The Pyro groaned at having to get up, scooping up Schnaps as he went. The cat wiggled until she was comfortable in his hold.

He took the phone, cradling Schnaps as he went. "Hello?"

 _"_ _Oh hey! So like, you were friends with those two robots from Gray Mann and all that crap right? So like I was walking down the street and I-"_

"Get to the point. I gotta go entertain some cats." Schnaps meowed loudly, demanding he put down the phone and give her his attention.

 _"_ _Yeah so like, I ran into the robot, but he ain't the ones staying with us. He says he's friends with them though. Do I shoot him?"_

"Is he a Soldier?"

 _"…_ _Yeah."_

"Then no. He's fine. A little old and crazy, but he's fine."

Scout groaned at not having been given permission to kill. "Fine." He hung up, turning his attention to Freedom, who could have taken the opportunity to run, but did not, for some reason.

"Okay, so you're cool and all. Now what the hell are you doing here?"

 _"_ _Mac told me to go away, so I did. I bunked at some lady's house. She's nice. Are you doing anything? Can I follow you?"_ He was so hopeful.

Scout looked up to the sky and sighed. It was going to be a long week with him trailing.

 **A/N. Translations! I used Google Translate so forgive me if anything is wrong to those who speak French.**

"Veux-tu du café?" - Do you want coffee?

"Y at-il quelque chose sur cette photo?" - Is there something about that photo?

 _"Non._ __ _Il est… familiar?" - No, he's just familiar._

"C'est mon petit-fils. Je ne l'ai pas vu depuis un moment." - He is my grandson. Haven't seen him in awhile.

"Qu'est-il arrivé?" - What happened?

"Je ne sais pas. Quelque chose sur les robots." - I don't know. Something about robots.


	11. An Old House On The Fringe

**A/N. Again, I am horrible at keeping to an upload schedule. I'm super super sorry. I'm trying so hard but the muse just keeps slipping just as I'm about to grab it.**

 **Also I hope none of y'all saw that notice I put up of me wanting to rewrite the story. I took it down because honestly, I can't give up now. So if you saw that, don't worry, the story isn't being rewritten. I don't have the time to do it all over again anyway.**

The robots had to take off early before anyone came to the shop. Sure enough people were going to find out someone had broken in, but as far as possible, they didn't need to know who did it. Before the sun had risen, the two robots and their newfound avian friend took off for the alley again.

Passing by the same alley they had just fought in the night before, Medibot noticed that the men were gone, leaving nothing but a messy pile of boxes. Carrion tilted his head at the boxes, seeming like he had forgotten what went on already.

The sun had only started to peek over tall buildings, its warm, golden glow fighting to get through the urban jungle and its massive, towering constructs. Not a single ray touched the ground yet.

The two wanderers left no trail except for the fading clank of their hard heels on cement and stone as they walked through alleys that had not been maintained for a long time. The cement ground was stained all shades of brown and grey, rusty pipes jutting out of the back of buildings and dumpsters empty, but not quite clean.

 _"_ _Vell Herr, now vhat? Paris is so big, ve can't possibly look everyvhere for Herr Freedom."_

 _"_ _I know but… he has to be somewhere. I don't think he's gone that far. He's not that…."_ He trailed off, suddenly deciding that he didn't want to say whatever he had to say. It was a bitter word, and it didn't feel very nice at all. It felt a lot like someone grabbed a whole bunch of wires and twisted them hard, then yanked them all out at once.

Medibot didn't press for the word, feeling the heavy air surrounding his friend. Makina was stressed, that much Medibot could tell at a glance. His feet dragged on the floor, his actions forceful, his thoughts unclear. In a human, this problem would have been a lot easier to solve with a massage or something.

Maybe the whole human emotion thing wasn't a good idea. Robots weren't meant to experience such things. It was what separated them from the humans.

They wandered away from the tangle of buildings, leaving the worn concrete behind in favour of standing out in the open, just a little ways out from the end of the alley. Makina turned on his radar, hoping that Freedom hadn't been smart enough to disconnect himself from the network.

The radar kept spinning, waiting patiently for someone to appear on it. It was a long wait and Makina was ready to give up after seeing its needle spin for the twentieth time, when a small blue dot appeared on it. He requested for the radar to be changed into a map of the area, revealing that Freedom was hidden away in a small neighbourhood standing at the edge of the airport.

They had gone too far into the neighbourhood. Makina was frustrated at it. Of course Freedom hadn't gone that far, it was stupid of them to have gone all the way inside.

 _"_ _Time to turn around, Doc, we've gone too far,"_ Makina sighed. _Turn around! You've gone too far!_ A voice shouted within. It was faint, barely there, but the Sniperbot caught the words just before they slipped by.

An image flashed by. It was blur, hardly recognisable, but it looked like a white hallway, lights so bright they blinded. It was only there for a split second before it was gone again.

All these odd images and lines of dialogue were frustrating. He wanted to know where they came from.

It was not a long walk back to the fringe of the town. They had to hurry before the sun was really up and people began to go around. With every step, the blue Soldier symbol blinked closer to them on the map, until they came to a stop right in front of a small house that, unlike the rest, had not begun to stir.

 _"_ _So, zhis is it?"_ Medibot asked. He rolled forward, ready to knock on the door.

 _"_ _Looks like it. You sure you want to knock? Whoever's inside might not like us."_

 _"_ _Vell, if Herr Freedom is inside, I zhink zhey vould be tolerant."_

Medibot knocked anyway, then rolled back, waiting patiently. The white door eventually cracked open, an old lady peeking out.

"Qui es-tu?" She asked. Makina didn't understand her.

Medibot on the other hand, was a bit of a linguist himself. He quickly identified the language and replied to her. _"Bonjour Madame, nous cherchons un robot nommé Freedon? Il est assez grand,et il porte un casque."_

The old lady's eyes lit up at the doctor's ability to speak French. She opened the door wider, ushering the two into her house. "S'il vous plaît entrez, il est à l'intérieur."

"Veux-tu du cafe?" The lady asked. She briefly turned her head to a partially opened door. "Freedom! Vous avez des invités!"

 _"_ _Non, merci."_ Robots didn't drink coffee. Or anything, for that matter. The old lady didn't seem to mind.

Makina hummed. _"I didn't know you could speak French."_

 _"_ _Languages are quite fun to learn. Perhaps you could try a new one. Besides the swearing. Oh, hello Herr Freedom."_

Freedom's eyes brightened up as he came across his two friends, having already forgotten about his squabble with Makina. _"Guys! Oh man, am I glad to see you. Why are you here?"_

 _"_ _We came here looking for you. We need to move on."_ Carrion trilled from Medibot's shoulder, and Freedom couldn't help but offer his hand to the magpie. After a little coaxing from Medibot, Carrion hopped over to his new friend's hand.

Freedom watched with amazement as Carrion perched in his hand, the bird's eyes sparkling bright. Eventually he managed to direct himself back to the question. _"But where are you going?"_

Before Makina could reply, Dave burst through the door, panting. "Jesus Christ guys, I take a ten minute nap and you guys leave me? Couldn't y'all wait?"

The old lady was very confused as to why so many men were in her house. "...Cafe?" She offered Dave.

"What?"

 _"Coffee,"_ Medibot explained.

"Oh, no thank you."

 _"Non merci,"_ Medibot translated for him. The old lady nodded and left them.

 _"So where are you going?"_ Freedom repeated.

Makina shrugged as best as he was capable of doing. _"Home? Back to Teufort?"_

 _"So soon? Hey, speaking of Teufort, I ran into someone. RED Scout I think."_

Makina prompted Medibot. Often it was the doctor who was over at RED while Makina stayed at BLU.

 _"_ _A Scout? I suppose he must have traveled out here. Vhy is zhe question. He never really had much of an affiliation with France."_

It was clear someone in the room wanted to make a comment about Spy, but given how his real son had died, no one wanted to say it.

 _"_ _But Herr, veren't ve looking for zhat boy? Zhe one zhat died?"_

Makina nodded. _"Right, right. Yeah, we still got almost the whole month off. Might as well. Where would we start though?"_

"If you're looking for missing people or people who died, you probably need an intelligence database. Which means getting into the police station that handled the matter and asking for the files there," Dave interjected. When he received nothing but some stares, he averted his gaze to the floor. "Forensic Science major."

 _"_ _Right. So we find out where he died and we break into the nearest police station."_

Dave looked horrified. "We already caused a lot of trouble. Can't we do this in a more peaceful way?"

 _"_ _Well I mean, of course we're going to ask first, but if they say no, we'll get them by force. I need to know about that guy."_

Dave was not fully on board with the idea, but there was nothing to do about it now. Makina was clearly going to get his way and he wasn't going to fight a 220 pound robot on it. Something about his almost-featureless face showed determination. This was a case that he wanted to solve, and by God was Dave coming along.

"Okay. Well, we should first find out where it happened. If it happened only a few years ago, some people might still remember. We could ask around."

 _"_ _We could ask the RED Scout!"_ Freedom chimed in.

Medibot tilted his head a little. Outside, he could hear people walking around the street already. People were dangerous, so their plans had to be put on hold till the evening. For the day, they were stuck in the old house.

 _"_ _I don't see how Herr Scout vould know much. Vould be vorth a shot. If you know vhere he's staying, ve could go visit him later tonight?"_

Makina sat down on the plush couch, feeling himself sink in. The cushion probably had enough support for a 90 pound old lady, but it didn't help much for a 220 pound robot. He gave up trying to get comfortable on the squishy couch and opted for the floor by the old television instead.

One by one, the guests of the house got comfortable somewhere, trying not to get awkward. The old lady had been cooking something while they were talking, showing up back in the living room with a tray of small bowls. She set the tray down on the table. "J'ai fait la soupe à L'oignon. Aidez-vous."

Dave went straight for a bowl, while the three robots just stared. _"Désolé, nous ne mangeons pas,"_ Medibot explained. _"Les robots en sont incapables."_

The old lady didn't take any offense to it. She just took the tray back to the kitchen, humming a tune as she went. Makina sank back, leaning against the wall and switching off to save battery.


	12. A White Dragon In The Dark

After finishing the soup, Dave had tried to occupy time by reading one of the many magazines left strewn on the table by the old lady. There were all sorts, and some of them he was sure she didn't even like to read, but probably just said yes when asked to subscribe. Unfortunately for him, they were in French and he couldn't read any of it.

Eventually he gave up and tried to fall asleep, but was awoken just as he was about to drift off to sleep by the old lady asking if he wanted coffee. His sleep-plagued mind had a hard time figuring out what she was asking at first, but he remembered Medibot explaining what _cafe_ was.

He was going to have to stay up late if they were going out in the evening to ask people questions, so he accepted the coffee. She served him a small cup of strong black coffee; not quite what he enjoyed, but it would help him stay awake.

The bitter taste of the coffee was strong enough of jar him from his sleepiness. Slowly he sipped on it, trying not to gag at the incredibly strong taste. He would have asked for milk if he knew what it was in French. He was ready to ask Medibot, but the doctor was in idle mode he could tell by his dim eyes.

 _It must be nice to be a robot,_ Dave thought, _you can just switch off any time and not deal with insomnia._

The old lady must have noticed how slowly he was taking the coffee, for she approached. "Voulez-vous du sucre ou du lait?"

He didn't get her at first, but sucre sounded like sucrose, so… sugar? He nodded, hoping his guess was right. "Yes please."

She seemed to understand that much for she went to the small kitchen and returned with a small tray with a tin of sugar and some milk. Dave added in the milk but saved the sugar. With milk, the coffee was perfect.

The bots were still idling away their day, waiting fot the sun to go down. Unfortunately for Dave, passing time wasn't as easy. He twiddled his thumbs, tried to learn some French, noticed every single feature in the house, but nothing could keep the boredom out.

Did robots get bored roo? If Makina was capable of aggression and regret he might have been capable of boredom too. Dave wasn't going to wake him up to ask.

Each hour waa agonisingly slow, but warm, orange rays of sun were soon peeking through the windows, indicating that it would take its leave soon. The warm golden light bathed the inside of the dark house with a pale wash of orange. Carrion bathed in the light, his white feathers looking orange.

As if on a timed schedule, the trio of metal mercenaries awoke from their idleness at seven.

 _"We leave at soon as it's dark,"_ Makina reminded, _"we find the RED Scout and we ask him if he knows anything. If he doesn't, we move on. Everyone got it?"_

The two other robots and Dave nodded and they left the house. The old lady had taken a nap and didnt take note of their leave.

The streets of the suburbs were getting dark, everything seemingly tinged with blue as the sun set below the hills in the distance and the moon rose for its shift in the sky. One by one, the street's white lamps turned on, casting circles of light onto cement paving.

 _"Lead zhe vay, Herr Freedom."_

Freedom seemed utterly pleased at his chance to lead his friends on an important mission. He brought up a map and began to trace his steps back to where he last found the Scout, which was a row of stores that had closed for the night.

 _"This is where I last met him."_

Makina looked around. _"Well that's not very helpful, we could be anywhere by now."_

Freedom lowered his head a little, having disappointed his friends again. Makina noticed it and sighed, feeling guilty after Medibot nudged him. _"It's a start. You did a good job."_

Freedom straightened up again at the compliment. _"Vell vas he carrying anyzhing? Maybe if he bought somezhing from one of zhese shops, zhe owner might know vhere he vent. Zhere's a bakery over zhere zhat's still open."_

Medibot was right. Even if Scout hadn't bought anything, he did pull out a pistol and someone was bound to have seen that. _"Let's try asking. Freedom, make sure he doesn't call the police. Medibot can do the talking and I'll keep watch outside. Dave can... make us seem less intimidating."_

Dave rolled his eyes at the job he was given, but said nothing about it. It would have been worse if he had been made to do the talking.

Medibot wheeled into the shop, greeting the shop owner first in French, then asking if he could speak English.

"Oui," the shopkeeper replied nonchalantly, as if he wasn't staring at three deadly robots and some foreign guy.

 _"Ve're looking for someone zhat you might have seen. He vas vearing a red shirt, quite tall, likely vith a baseball cap?"_ Medibot asked.

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes. "Oh, that's very specific," he sneered.

Makina glanced into the shop from outside from time to time to make sure everything was okay. Even though he knew Medibot could take care of himself and had a mean punch, he still couldn't help but ensure his friend's safety himself.

 _"He pulled out a pistol at some point after running into our friend here,"_ Medibot continued, gesturing to Freedom.

The shopkeeper had a moment to think about it. "Ah yes, is he quite thin? I think I know him. He's was in here this morning buying bread."

 _"Any chance you know vhere he vent?"_ Medibot ventured.

"Ack, how am I to know that? If he is a foreigner, he might be staying in the hotel nearby.

 _"And vhere is zhat, if you might know?"_

The man shrugged. "There are airport hotels you could try, and Plaza Athénéé which isn't far. If he's rich, he'd likely be at Athénéé."

Medibot turned to give Makina a nod from outside. _"Zhank you for your help."_ Dave would have bought bread before leaving if he had any money on him.

 _"Well?"_ Makina prompted.

Medibot pulled up a map and set a marker for Hotel Plaza Athénéé. _"Mercenaries are rich and zhere's a five star hotel nearby we could check."_

Makina nodded. _"Sounds reasonable. Lead the way, doc."_

Through the night they traversed, Medibot leading the four straight to the hotel in as quick a route as possible. The exterior was already lavish, telling them that if Scout was here, he sure had spent a pretty penny.

The receptionist was a little shocked to see them, eyes wide and wary as they approached. Makina let Medibot do the talking with Dave accompanying the latter.

 _"Good evening Miss, I am looking for someone, perhaps by zhe name of..."_ He took a moment to search the cloud of information he had on the mercenaries taken from their medical files. _"Jeremy?"_

The receptionist nodded shakily, searching for a Jeremy on her system. "Yes, there is a mister Jeremy in a junior suite. Do you need him?"

 _"Preferably ve vould like to meet him in his room if possible."_

"I- I- I will have to ask him first. Please give me a moment... Sir." She wasn't sure how to address Medibot, and often to looked at Dave instead for comfort in the situation. She spoke on the phone for a bit.

"Ah, you may go upstairs to suite 5 on the 21st floor. Have a good evening." She wanted them out of her hair soon, that much was clear. Medibot said his thank yous and ushered his friends to the lift.

" _Suite 5, level 21..."_ Medibot muttered as he looked for the correct floor in the lift. " _I hope he doesn't mind us intruding."_

The lift pinged as the odd group reached their destination. The two mirrored doors opened, and they came face to face with a familiar face that quickly read "what the fuck".

Spy did not expect to see any of the robots, and whoever the hell the guy was. He grabbed Makina and dragged him out the lift and into the hallway, quickly looking fron side to side to ensure no one was watching.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed at the taller robot.

Makina pulled himself away from Spy's grip. _"We're looking for the RED Scout."_

"What are you-'

Scout threw open the doors to his suite. "Fellas! I heard y'all wanted to come talk to me. And you even brought Spy!" He paused, suddenly narrowing his eyes. "The receptionist didn't say Spy was there."

"That's because I'm staying here, you idiot!" Another door opened and a stranger walked out. "Quick, get inside! People don't need to see you." He pushed the robots into Scout's suite and shut the door, locking it and leaving Dave outside.

"Wait I-" The door clicked as it was locked. Great.

Scout's suite was lavishly decorated, the hotel sparing no expense in creating the room. None of it mattered to Spy - he stayed in the deluxe suite which was better than this one any way, and something more important was at hand.

"So you have three seconds to explain yourselves or I'll break you," Spy warned.

Medibot tilted his head. _"Technically, you can't do zhat. Ve are legally bonded to the Mann Co industry and you attacking us on ceasefire would be a breach of your contract."_

Makina was amazed. Medibot had actually read the entire contract Miss Pauling had them sign? Makina had only skimmed through before signing. By skimming, he meant he only read the first page.

Spy rolled his eyes. "Just tell us what you're doing."

 _"We're trying to find out about a robot uprising here. Presumably started by Gray Mann some time ago. We thought Scout might know something about it, but now that you're here, you could probably tell us something about it too."_

Spy pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, Scout looking utterly confused. "Well whatever it is, I know nothing about it," Scout butted in, "and why the hell cant y'all go to Spy's room?"

"We're already here, and mind you boy, the general public does not need to see them." The assassin turned his attention to the robots and their bird, which seemed to be listening. "I don't know much about the uprising itself since for the last four years I have been in America, but I do know someone who might know. An associate, if you will."

 _"_ _Can we visit him?"_ Freedom chimed in.

Spy did not like the idea of bringing three robots and possibly Scout out into public with him, but he was almost sure that if he didn't accompany them, they'd go on their own and cause a lot more trouble.

He sighed in exasperation. "Fine. But if any of you cause trouble, I am not taking the blame for it. Also- no Scout, I am not going to disguise as Tom Jones at any point in this. We are going to find my associate, you all get the information you need, then leave. Are we all clear?"

He didn't get a reply, but assumed they all understood anyway. "We will leave after dinner. I am going up to my room." They watched as Spy took his leave - presumably he would return later.

Scout flopped onto his bed, the sheets already messy from the night before. "So like, you guys wanna tell me what this is all about?" His legs swung off the side of the plush mattress as if that were his own bed back home.

Medibot let Makina take the stage in explaining the whole long story so far, Carrion popping up from the warm nook in Medibot's back he had been turning into a nest when he was mentioned.

"So you want to go back to Gray Industries and find out what happened, is what you're saying?" Scout commented.

The three robots nodded. _"I've been having... Lines of dialogue that pop up every now and then. They're almost like memories, but I can't remember where they came from. But they're leading me somewhere, I know it."_

Scout slowly nodded. "Sounds like a mission." He paused for a moment, pondering over his next sentence. Spy wasn't here, so he concluded it was safe to speak. "I kinda wish that old BLU Scout was here. What was his name? Zack, right? Feels kinda odd that I'm going on a mission with you guys instead of him."

Makina never particularly had feelings for the boy before, but he had thought a lot about the dead Scout and felt a little sorry for him after his death.

"So if you do find out whatever you're looking for, then what?"

Makina imitated a shrug. It was a gesture he learnt on the base. _"I guess we'll see what we'll do when we get there. We might have to go back into the facility itself."_

The Sniperbot noticed Freedom freezing up at the idea of going back into the hellhole they spent months trying to escape. _"No one's obligated to enter though,"_ He quickly added. The last thing he wanted was Freedom running off again.

Medibot rolled up. _"Vhatever it is zhat you choose, I vill follow, Herr."_

Makina was appreciative of his friend's support. Never in his life did he want to go back to the facility, but it didn't seem as daunting of a task with his closest friend backing him up.

"Alright, that's cool and all but if we're gonna go out at night, then I'm gonna spend my day relaxing. You guys take off if you need to, yeah? Spy'll probably be back around 8 after eating his fancy schmancy dinner."

Freedom decided to stay within the room while Medibot and Makina agreed to go take a stroll around.

They wandered the carpeted halls of the suites, greeted by grand doors on both sides. Their feet hardly made any sound on the soft carpet, only the clink and whirr of their bodies and gears making any noise to break the silence of the hall.

Unknowingly, they embarked on a game of hiding from the security officers and staff wandering around, ducking out of sight whenever they heard people coming down the hall.

They spent a hour exploring the hotel before returning to Scout's room at exactly 8. As Scout had guessed, Spy was waiting for them.

"I am surprised at your ability to tell the time," He commented as the two robots entered. "Let's go. I don't want to be outside any longer than you."

The assassin led the odd group out of the room and back into the lobby, where they found Dave arguing with the receptionist and trying to get back up to the rooms.

Makina strode forward and grabbed him. _"Where the hell have you been?"_ He hissed.

Dave rolled his eyes. "Your friend there locked me out of the room, then the security threw me out."

Makina turned to glare at Spy, who shrugged. "Next time, speak up first."

They exited the hotel, Spy taking the lead. Freedom and Dave walked at the back, Medibot walking ahead with Spy and Makina in the middle on his own.

Spy kept as neutral a face as possible, leading them to the side of the road and calling a taxi. When the ride came, Spy leaned in to talk in hushed whispers. He handed something to the driver and the driver got out, walking away.

"Get in," Spy ordered. The group piled into the car. Medibot sat up front with Spy while the rest squeezed into the back. When he was seated comfortably, he pulled out his knife and stabbed the GPS tracker.

Spy drove in silence until Medibot asked a question. _"Vhat did you give him?"_

He took one hand off the wheel to flip his hood up, shielding his eyes. "Money. It is a long drive, and I prefer it if we are not followed." His eyes drifted to the cracked screen of the GPS.

 _"Ah. I see."_

Spy occasionally looked through the mirror to observe Dave, who was taking a nap on Freedom's shoulder. The Soldierbot didn't seem to mind at all.

"Do you trust him?" Spy asked.

 _"Who?"_ Medibot's stare was fixed on the road ahead. Spy was not sure if he was really looking at anything.

"The man."

 _"Herr Dave? He has been razher helpful so far. He knows how to make a shelter, vhich is better zhan vhat I can do."_

Spy narrowed his eyes in the slightest. "I do not trust him."

 _"You trust few, Herr Spy. I understand zhough, I know it is part of your job."_

Spy had nothing to say in reply. Medibot was incredibly observant and intelligent, more than Spy gave him credit for. To him, bots were almost all the same.

As he drove, Carrion began to hop onto the dashboard, observing Spy with glistening, curious eyes. "This your magpie?" He asked.

Medibot reached forward to scoop the bird from the dashboard. _"Ve found him being tortured by some men."_

Spy nodded. If there was one thing he couldn't do, it was unnecessarily kill animals or leave them to die. "I assume you killed them."

Carrion hopped away from Medibot's hands, perching on the steering wheel instead and occasionally leaning down to pick at Spy's gloves. He reached out a finger to scratch at his plumage.

 _"Oh no, I do not kill unless I have to. I simply bruised and dislocated most of zheir limbs."_

Spy focused on the road once more as Carrion decided his gloves weren't edible and went back to the warmth of the exhaust pipe on Medibot's back. The drive had almost been an hour long, and they were nearing their destination.

They exited the highway and pulled into a night market that was bustling with energy. Street peddlers were hawking their goods, buyers trying to negotiate prices and haggle in return. Spy parked the car on the fringe of the market, dropping off the keys with another taxi driver.

The market was full of life, white tents illuminated with an orange glow under each of them and people buzzing all around. Spy gestured to them to stay close. "Do _not_ do anything until I say you can," he warned. The group voiced their acknowledgment, sticking close to Spy as he weaved through the market like a snake in shadows.

The group managed to ignore people as best as they could, pushing past stubborn hawkers and politely declining offers. Freedom however, got a little overwhelmed by it all.

The group didn't realise they had lost him until they were near the first turn into the next row of shops.

 _"Guys. I think we lost Freedom,"_ Makina called out.

Spy scowled. "Leave him."

Makina felt his gears turn hot with annoyance that Spy so easily brushed off his friend like that. _"You go on ahead. I'll catch up. Doc can stay with you so I can track him. I'm going to find Freedom."_

He disappeared into the sea of people before anyone could argue against it. Scout quickly chased after him. "Wait! I'll go with you!" Scout was quickly sucked into the crowd as well.

Spy rolled his eyes. "We will meet up again later. Quickly, my associate does not stay in one place for too long."

He turned and led the way down the crowd once more, twisting and turning, slipping and sliding through people. Medibot and Dave weren't as skilled in such crowds and found themselves bumping lots of people.

They finally made it out of the crowd, almost crashing into Spy who was scanning the area. His eyes grazed over every tent, until he found a thin old man clad in a similar suit. As soon as he took a step forward, the old man's head snapped up like a wary deer during hunting season. He and Spy locked eyes for a second, before the old man took off.

Spy launched after, leaving Dave and Medibot to give chase in utter confusion.

The old man clamoured over boxes and tents, leaping over people's wares on the floor. He climbed up the side of a building with ease, disappearing to the rooftops.

Spy snarled at the man disappeared. "Medibot, follow on the street. He'll jump off at some point, so try to catch him if he misses his landing. I'll direct him from the roofs." The RED went clambering up the roofs after him.

Medibot activated his tracker, following the red dot on his minimap visual along the street. Dave tried to follow Medibot along.

Spy was breathing heavily as he leaped from roof to roof, barrel rolling, pushing off ledges, but no matter how hard he tried, the man seemed to get further and further away.

He could almost predict the old man's route and went to the side, disappearing to the lower rooftops. Looking back, the old man couldn't see him and slowed down a little.

That was when Spy struck. Like a cheetah pouncing for the kill, he barreled into the old man, throwing them both off the rooftops.

Medibot reached just in time to catch Spy, while the old man tumbled onto Dave. Before he could compose himself and take off again, Spy wriggled out of Medibot's hold and caught the old man.

They were both panting, glaring at each other while Medibot picked Dave off the floor and checked to make sure he was okay.

"I did not think you still had it in you," Spy said, eyeing the old man impressively.

"And I did not think you would have caught me. You have learned a lot since I last taught you." The old man nodded. Spy tried to mask his pride, those few rays only peeking out.

 _"Apologies, but might I ask who you are?"_ Medibot interrupted.

The man did a little bow with his fist to his palm. "I am Spy's old mentor. You may call me the White Dragon." Medibot now understood his Chinese accent.

Medibot returned the bow. _"Zhank you, Vhite Dragon. I am Medibot 208, and zhis is Dave."_ Dave made a small wave with one hand while he rubbed his sore neck with the other.

White Dragon observed both of them for a moment longer before turning his attention to Spy. "So what does my grasshopper require this time?"

Spy rolled his eyes at the nickname. "We need info on the robot uprising that happened here some years ago. Presumably when Gray Mann just began to make robots."

White Dragon suddenly became very wary. His eyes darted from side to side and he ushered the group into an old warehouse, pulling down the shutter after them. He grazed the wall for a bit, searching for a light socket.

The warehouse's stark, white lights flicked on with an audible echo, casting harsh shadows onto the floor. The massive shelves of the warehouse were left with abandoned boxes, most of which were empty.

"It is not safe outside. People are only just recovering from the effects of Mann's destruction. They might have forgotten the faces of the things that hurt them, but they will not hesitate to fight back when the painful memory is brought up," White Dragon warned. He gestured to the floor. "Please, have a seat."

When everyone was comfortable and seated on the floor - except for Spy, who refused and preferred to keep standing even at his master's behest - White Dragon began.

"Gray Mann is dangerous. He is very clever, and very lethal. I have heard a lot about your recent work against him and I am impressed and very relieved that he is dead. But before the Administrator set you on the case," He nodded to Spy, "She sent my team a long time ago."

"For context, I am part of a disbanded team. We called ourselves team Citadel. You are team Fortress, yes?" He did not wait for a confirmation before continuing. "Back then we were already disbanded when she called for us again to fight against Mann. She did not want to disrupt your work against BLU as much as possible."

"Mann was only beginning to raise his army. We thought it would be easy to take him down, but we were wrong. Instead of raising an army, he was working on another project. He wanted to be immortal. There were two ways of doing that. One was to make the human body immortal without flooding it with Australium constantly, and the other was to be able to upload a human's personality and intelligence to a machine."

"He wanted to make humans immortal first, but he was not given the funding he needed. It was too hard to do anyway, so he moved on to plan B. He asked for volunteers for his project, promising a large payout if he was successful. He made them keep quiet about the project, however, and a lot of them went missing without a word."

"People eventually found out about his project and began to protest against it, demanding the return of the missing people. By then he had amassed a lot of robots and to keep the public quiet, he released them onto the people."

The White Dragon stared at the floor. "A lot of people died, including most of team Citadel." His Adam's Apple bobbed on his throat, eye twitching at the memory. "I do not know any more. I left Paris after that and Mann moved on elsewhere. The rest is history."

Just as he finished, Makina and Freedom entered. White Dragon stood up, drawing his revolver. On the barrel, a Chinese dragon was carved onto it.

Spy lowered his master's hand. "They are friendly. I see you found him."

Makina and Freedom joined the crew. _"He got excited by all the things,"_ he explained, _"what did we miss?"_

Spy introduced White Dragon to the two robots and filled them in briefly on the story. Makina listened very carefully. _"So where might we find the bodies of the volunteers, assuming they're dead?"_

"Likely, they will have been disposed of in the facility, but you can always check. Mann had a habit of keeping his earliest experiments for memory sake," White Dragon chimed in.

Makina's insides jerked. It was a sour taste boiling again at the thought of going back to the ruined facility. He nodded anyway. _"Okay. Let's do this."_


End file.
